5 ms·

Unfortunate name, "cu" it's the most well known slang for "anus" in Brazil (population: 200+ million). "Libcu++" is sure to cause snickering.

NullPrefix 6y ago
This only affects developers. Limited scope. Wasn't there something related about Microsoft Lumia phones?
- kitd 6y ago
  cf. the Vauxhall Nova car "No va" means "doesn't go" in Spanish.
  - andrepd 6y ago
    Also Hyundai Kona, "cona" means "cunt" or "pussy" in Portuguese.
    - FridgeSeal 6y ago
      Wow, Kona Bikes [0] must have a fun time in Portugal then.. [0] https://konaworld.com/ https://konaworld.com/
    - fullstop 6y ago
      I wonder how kona coffee sells over there.
  - sterwill 6y ago
    I think it's unlikely that Spanish speakers would have been confused about the word "nova" when used as a car name. In Spanish "nova" describes the same astronomical event we call a "nova" in English: a new light in the sky. Additionally Spanish "nuevo" and English "new" seem to share the same root. My point is these words all mean similar things to English- and Spanish-speaking car buyers.
    - retrac 6y ago
      For a non-mythical example, the 2nd-gen Buick LaCrosse was originally named Allure in the Canadian market. Se crosser is Quebec French slang for "to masturbate" and "la crosse" is also a slang term for a swindle or rip-off.
  - geofft 6y ago
    Customers either didn't make that association or didn't care: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanish/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanis...
- virgulino 6y ago
  Unix users have "cu". Do "man cu", if you are curious. I haven't played with "cu" since the UUCP email era. Good times.
  - moonchild 6y ago
    Doesn't exist on my system, but is at https://linux.die.net/man/1/cu https://linux.die.net/man/1/cu
- nonbirithm 6y ago
  Or how Siri means "buttocks" in Japanese?
  - jki275 6y ago
    It’s oshiri, not Siri.
    - nonbirithm 6y ago
      Actually the 'o' is a modifier for politeness. It seems there's a version of the word without an 'o'. https://jisho.org/search/shiri https://jisho.org/search/shiri
      - jki275 6y ago
        I'm aware... But the word isn't pronounced the same anyway, and I've never heard it used without the o either.
gswdh 6y ago
In all honesty, out of the combinations for two and three letter acronyms there’s bound to be a language out the there where the meaning is crude. I recall on here recently, something being rude in Finnish or Swedish. We’re professionals, it’s just a name, who cares.
unrealhoang 6y ago
It’s penis in Vietnamese (pop. 80M), I guess people don’t really care since tech language is usually English
amelius 6y ago
"CU" is also an abbreviation of "see you". I don't think it causes much awkwardness, but I could be wrong.
- ufo 6y ago
  As a Brazilian, I can confirm that we chuckle whenever we see someone use that word :)
jcampbell1 6y ago
These things never seem to matter even in English. How many times have you heard someone say “I don’t like Microsoft”, followed by “that’s what she said”.
- matheusmoreira 6y ago
  That joke appears in a lot of Microsoft memes though. Not sure if posting some is appropriate here. Probably not.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
CyberDildonics 6y ago
Wait until you see the namespace the standard library is under. Although maybe short words that are slang in languages different from what something was written in aren't a big deal.
nitrogen 6y ago
Do chemists have similar problems working with copper, whose chemical symbol is Cu?
- matheusmoreira 6y ago
  Probably not. I heard a few jokes during high school and that's it. Not even that funny. I remember my class had a lot more fun with iron(II) hydroxide: when the compound's name is pronounced in portuguese it sounds like the teacher is threatening to screw over two students.
blelbach 6y ago
"cu" is a pretty common prefix for CUDA libraries. cuBLAS, cuTENSOR, CUTLASS, CUB, etc. It gets worse if you try to spell libcu++ without pluses: libcuxx libcupp (I didn't hate this one but my team disliked it). We settled on `libcudacxx` as the alphanumeric-only spelling.
gumby 6y ago
cu is, or was back in the day, a standard Unix utility (call up) — connect to another machine via modem. It doesn’t appear to be in Ubuntu any more but still in openbsd, netbsd, and macos! You can’t win win these namespace collisions: I have friends whose names are obscenities in other languages I speak.

NullPrefix 6y ago

This only affects developers. Limited scope. Wasn't there something related about Microsoft Lumia phones?

kitd 6y ago
cf. the Vauxhall Nova car "No va" means "doesn't go" in Spanish.
- andrepd 6y ago
  Also Hyundai Kona, "cona" means "cunt" or "pussy" in Portuguese.
  - FridgeSeal 6y ago
    Wow, Kona Bikes [0] must have a fun time in Portugal then.. [0] https://konaworld.com/ https://konaworld.com/
  - fullstop 6y ago
    I wonder how kona coffee sells over there.
- sterwill 6y ago
  I think it's unlikely that Spanish speakers would have been confused about the word "nova" when used as a car name. In Spanish "nova" describes the same astronomical event we call a "nova" in English: a new light in the sky. Additionally Spanish "nuevo" and English "new" seem to share the same root. My point is these words all mean similar things to English- and Spanish-speaking car buyers.
  - retrac 6y ago
    For a non-mythical example, the 2nd-gen Buick LaCrosse was originally named Allure in the Canadian market. Se crosser is Quebec French slang for "to masturbate" and "la crosse" is also a slang term for a swindle or rip-off.
- geofft 6y ago
  Customers either didn't make that association or didn't care: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanish/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanis...
virgulino 6y ago
Unix users have "cu". Do "man cu", if you are curious. I haven't played with "cu" since the UUCP email era. Good times.
- moonchild 6y ago
  Doesn't exist on my system, but is at https://linux.die.net/man/1/cu https://linux.die.net/man/1/cu
nonbirithm 6y ago
Or how Siri means "buttocks" in Japanese?
- jki275 6y ago
  It’s oshiri, not Siri.
  - nonbirithm 6y ago
    Actually the 'o' is a modifier for politeness. It seems there's a version of the word without an 'o'. https://jisho.org/search/shiri https://jisho.org/search/shiri
    - jki275 6y ago
      I'm aware... But the word isn't pronounced the same anyway, and I've never heard it used without the o either.

gswdh 6y ago

In all honesty, out of the combinations for two and three letter acronyms there’s bound to be a language out the there where the meaning is crude. I recall on here recently, something being rude in Finnish or Swedish. We’re professionals, it’s just a name, who cares.

unrealhoang 6y ago

It’s penis in Vietnamese (pop. 80M), I guess people don’t really care since tech language is usually English

amelius 6y ago

"CU" is also an abbreviation of "see you". I don't think it causes much awkwardness, but I could be wrong.

ufo 6y ago
As a Brazilian, I can confirm that we chuckle whenever we see someone use that word :)

jcampbell1 6y ago

These things never seem to matter even in English. How many times have you heard someone say “I don’t like Microsoft”, followed by “that’s what she said”.

matheusmoreira 6y ago
That joke appears in a lot of Microsoft memes though. Not sure if posting some is appropriate here. Probably not.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

CyberDildonics 6y ago

Wait until you see the namespace the standard library is under. Although maybe short words that are slang in languages different from what something was written in aren't a big deal.

nitrogen 6y ago

Do chemists have similar problems working with copper, whose chemical symbol is Cu?

matheusmoreira 6y ago
Probably not. I heard a few jokes during high school and that's it. Not even that funny. I remember my class had a lot more fun with iron(II) hydroxide: when the compound's name is pronounced in portuguese it sounds like the teacher is threatening to screw over two students.

blelbach 6y ago

"cu" is a pretty common prefix for CUDA libraries. cuBLAS, cuTENSOR, CUTLASS, CUB, etc. It gets worse if you try to spell libcu++ without pluses: libcuxx libcupp (I didn't hate this one but my team disliked it). We settled on `libcudacxx` as the alphanumeric-only spelling.

gumby 6y ago

cu is, or was back in the day, a standard Unix utility (call up) — connect to another machine via modem. It doesn’t appear to be in Ubuntu any more but still in openbsd, netbsd, and macos! You can’t win win these namespace collisions: I have friends whose names are obscenities in other languages I speak.