Meta: Facebook's new name ridiculed by Hebrew speakers

BBC News ^ | October 29, 2021

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Facebook's announcement that it is changing its name to Meta has caused quite the stir in Israel where the word sounds like the Hebrew word for "dead".

To be precise, Meta is pronounced like the feminine form of the Hebrew word.

Facebook isn't the only company to be ridiculed over translations of its branding.

Here are a few examples of when things got lost in translation.

When KFC arrived in China during the 80s, its motto "finger lickin' good" didn't exactly go down well with the locals.

The motto's translation in Mandarin was "eat your fingers off".

Rolls-Royce changed the name of its Silver Mist car as mist translates as "excrement" in German.

The car was named Silver Shadow instead.

Meanwhile when Nokia released its Lumia phone in 2011, it didn't exactly get the reaction it was expecting.

In Spanish, Lumia is a synonym for a prostitute, although it apparently only appears in dialects with a heavy gypsy influence.

[KarlInOhio]

A lot of Jews don’t speak Hebrew and I expect that non-Jewish residents of Israel know some Hebrew.

[Revel]

M Make
E Everything
T Trump
A Again

Push it.

[NWFree]

Meta - Manufacturing Extreme Toxic Agendas

[rfp1234]

Ford Pinto (”Penis”) in Brazil.

[nascarnation]

Is that slang? It translates to “chick”

[rfp1234]

Could be. I heard the claim that it means “penis” from a (non-Brazilian) chick at a party 25 years ago.

[rfp1234]

https://context.reverso.net/translation/english-portuguese/penis

[Right_Wing_Madman]

This is rebranding incompetence or arrogance. Take your pick

I liked "MyLifeSucks" better.

[goldbux]

Navistar spelled backward is ratsivan.

[AmericanMermaid]

Meta, like Metamucil? Lol!

[Flash Bazbeaux]

I have heard that this story is a myth. I know that in the 1980s Pemex sold a grade of gasoline under the name “Nova”. If Mexicans understood it to mean “doesn’t go”, I doubt they would have used the name.

[Impala64ssa]

Chevrolet Nova
Yup. The ones sold south of the border and in Central and South America had to be renamed.

[Impala64ssa]

Also, the Mustang Mach E, the glorified electric golf cart Ford is so proud of, sounds a lot like the old Jewish epithet, MOCKY. Kinda harkens back to Henry Ford’s anti Semetic proclivities

[Svartalfiar]

I have heard that this story is a myth. I know that in the 1980s Pemex sold a grade of gasoline under the name “Nova”. If Mexicans understood it to mean “doesn’t go”, I doubt they would have used the name.

The Spanish verb "ir" translates into "to go", but it's a very irregular verb. So "va" is the root form for most of the conjugations - yo voy - I go; ello va - it goes; tu vas - you go; nosotros vamos - we go; and so on. But, for much slang, the pronoun can be dropped - Vamos! can be translated as "Let's go!", or such. And, adding in "no" is the same in English and Spanish, it's a negation. Therefore, "No va" can be roughly/slang translated as "No it go", or "It doesn't go".

[Flash Bazbeaux]

I’m aware of all of that, but your explanation is like saying that English speakers understand the word manslaughter to be the sound a guy makes when he hears a joke.