KDE Programs Naming Convention

[D. Michael McIntyre]

On Sunday 13 January 2008, Mike Leone wrote:
> There's a famous story about the advertising for the Chevy Nova car in
> Hispanic countries. In Spanish, "no va" means "no go". You really don't
> want to call your car the "No Go" ...

I think it's probably an urban legend though.  It's "Nova" not "no va," and 
they probably have the same word "nova" we do, pertaining to star stuff.  Of 
course it's also the same word as "nueva" without the odd Spanish spelling 
shifts too (nova -> nueva, ferrum -> hierro, facere -> hacer, etc.)

Snopes agrees:

http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp

Snopes doesn't have anything to say about the Toyota MR2.  I don't see 
anything that directly refutes the possibility that they introduced the car 
with that name, though this site indicates they at least changed it:

http://www.edmunds.com/toyota/mr2spyder/review.html

The whole emm erre duh for merde does seem a lot more plausible than the "no 
va" story though, so maybe it's true.  Or was true.

Ah, those beautiful women who think I'm a dweeb don't know what they're 
missing.  Etymology lessons in the middle of a night of romance baby.  Who 
needs flowers when you can talk about the archaic future subjunctive mood in 
Spanish?

(Just as well, since I'm married to quite possibly the only female human on 
this entire rock who doesn't think I'm weird.  As for the beautiful part, 
that's why Al Gore invented beer.  I'm so glad she doesn't ever check up on 
me with google.  :) )

-- 
D. Michael McIntyre