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As a native french speaker I am quite surprised by those reactions. 'Bit', means 'dick'/'cock' in french, and it's never really been a big issue at university.

DonHopkins 2y ago
Bit sounds so romantic in French.
Davidbrcz 2y ago
Don't forget strings, that are sexy underwear....
- fvdessen 2y ago
  And mac that means pimp ^^
dgacmu 2y ago
I wonder if it's more due to the strength of sexual taboos in America or the frequency of the word -- bits are referred to from the very beginning of the curriculum, whereas theorem provers are only mentioned a few times unless you take a specific class. Both, perhaps - we are still a bit puritanical. After a lot of exposure, I map "coq" in a CS context to the theorem prover and don't find it giggle-worthy, but the reaction of students hearing it for the first time is different. (And outside of that, I'm more likely to think coq au vin, but I'm a cook.)
thefz 2y ago
[flagged]
- dang 2y ago
  Please don't do nationalistic flamewar on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - thefz 2y ago
    Barely an observation
    - dang 2y ago
      What feels like simple observation when filtered through one's own worldview can easily land as a provocation with another. If it interests you or anyone at all, I wrote a long comment about this exact point a few weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40755784 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40755784. Skip the first bits since they're context specific.
      - thefz 2y ago
        > What feels like simple observation when filtered through one's own worldview can easily land as a provocation with another. You indeed show to have the sensitivity required to understand this kind of nuances, yet selectively as it appears in this case. The above quote is precisely how a native French speaker may feel when being forced to reassign a name to their own project, simply because someone from another part of the world ignores their language and culture, and makes everything about themselves. (The internet is full of instances of pan-americanism. Take as an example the fuss around the word "negro", which in Spanish simply denotes the color black; it's the word used when you pick the color of your car from a catalogue, as an example, with zero racial connotation.) There are plenty examples of English words that sound funny in other languages, yet people adapt and move on, because they understand that the world is not only their country and culture, but made of thousands. Anyway, got your point. I think the persistence against this particular name in this case is singular, since there's an easy way out (spell the letters c-o-q).

DonHopkins 2y ago

Bit sounds so romantic in French.

Davidbrcz 2y ago

Don't forget strings, that are sexy underwear....

fvdessen 2y ago
And mac that means pimp ^^

dgacmu 2y ago

I wonder if it's more due to the strength of sexual taboos in America or the frequency of the word -- bits are referred to from the very beginning of the curriculum, whereas theorem provers are only mentioned a few times unless you take a specific class. Both, perhaps - we are still a bit puritanical. After a lot of exposure, I map "coq" in a CS context to the theorem prover and don't find it giggle-worthy, but the reaction of students hearing it for the first time is different. (And outside of that, I'm more likely to think coq au vin, but I'm a cook.)

thefz 2y ago

[flagged]

dang 2y ago
Please don't do nationalistic flamewar on HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- thefz 2y ago
  Barely an observation
  - dang 2y ago
    What feels like simple observation when filtered through one's own worldview can easily land as a provocation with another. If it interests you or anyone at all, I wrote a long comment about this exact point a few weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40755784 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40755784. Skip the first bits since they're context specific.
    - thefz 2y ago
      > What feels like simple observation when filtered through one's own worldview can easily land as a provocation with another. You indeed show to have the sensitivity required to understand this kind of nuances, yet selectively as it appears in this case. The above quote is precisely how a native French speaker may feel when being forced to reassign a name to their own project, simply because someone from another part of the world ignores their language and culture, and makes everything about themselves. (The internet is full of instances of pan-americanism. Take as an example the fuss around the word "negro", which in Spanish simply denotes the color black; it's the word used when you pick the color of your car from a catalogue, as an example, with zero racial connotation.) There are plenty examples of English words that sound funny in other languages, yet people adapt and move on, because they understand that the world is not only their country and culture, but made of thousands. Anyway, got your point. I think the persistence against this particular name in this case is singular, since there's an easy way out (spell the letters c-o-q).