Am I parsing it incorrectly in my head, or does this project have a blatantly antisemitic name?
As a side-note, I in no way think the author made any association with the word kike. Even though I know the word, I didn't jump to that conclusion at least, especially given the context.
None of IBM, Microsoft, or Facebook end in exactly one 'short' vowel plus one consonant, which is the rule, in English, that determines when the final consonant is doubled. That's why your examples don't work.
Incidentally, I would suggest "Microsoftened", since "soften" is already a verb that everyone is comfortable using. "Facebooked", of course, was a normal word in common use before anyone ever heard of Zuckerberg. Two vowels followed by a consonant is simply a different situation than one vowel followed by a consonant.
In any case, I think that it's fair to inform the author but feeling offended seems unnecessary. I had certainly never heard this word before and judging from the other threads here, neither had several native English speakers. To think that it was done on purpose seems really far fetched to me.
Can I be 'kik'-ed.
Kik being the operative word here not the slur to which you refer.
In English, words ending in a single short vowel followed by a single consonant double the consonant before adding '-ed' to form the past tense. That's the grammatical rule.
I still can't tell if this project is by someone with bad grammar or some 4chan-bred bigot trying to make a double entendre, but either way, it's fucking obnoxious to see it on the front page of Hacker News.
Your posts come across as ascribing malice to a fairly trivial (IMO) mistake. Politely pointing out that the name could be misinterpreted to be a derogatory term would have been a been course of action.
Of course, because you can't read, it's obnoxious to be on the front page.
Wouldn't you rather believe that this person didn't maliciously name this thing and get on with your day? Not everyone on earth is a horrible person.
Do you have any idea how telling me to 'smile a little' about this comes across?
A lot of horrible things have happened to Jewish people in the past, yes, but that doesn't give you the right to leap down someone's throat for what looks to be a very honest mistake.
Determining how I respond to ethnic slurs against me or my people really isn't up to you, either.
And seriously, what do you honestly believe happened here? That an Italian, non-native English speaker incorrectly conjugated the non-verb "kik" into the best he could? Or that he knowingly and maliciously took a jab at all Jewish people for seemingly no reason whatsoever? If it's honestly the latter, then I feel sorry for you.
No, I can't tell you how to respond. But I can sure as hell tell you when you're coming off like an asshole by responding in the way you do.
"Kiked" is an instance of unfortunately misinterpretable verbing. I parsed it that way too at first.
Here you go if you're interested in the history or etymology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kike
> The word kike was born on Ellis Island when there were Jewish migrants who were also illiterate (or could not use Latin alphabet letters). When asked to sign the entry-forms with the customary "X," the Jewish immigrants would refuse, because they associated an X with the cross of Christianity. Instead, they drew a circle as the signature on the entry-forms. The Yiddish word for "circle" is kikel (pronounced ky-kul), and for "little circle," kikeleh (pronounced ky-kul-uh). Before long the immigration inspectors were calling anyone who signed with an "O" in place of an "X" a kikel or kikeleh or kikee or, finally and succinctly, kike.
Maybe it's only in some parts of the world?
kike = a jewish person