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Comment by utf_8x | Hacker News Reader

Coq means rooster in French. Unfortunately it also sounds like "cock" which is a word people apparently can't handle in 2021...

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And cock means rooster in English. And of course the slang usage.

We call them 'roosters' usually. Source: many of my neighbors.

You probably call peacocks peacocks though, even though the "correct" collective name is peafowl.

Nope, we don't have any fowl here other than domesticated chickens and the occasional wild turkey family. Also Wild Turkey.

The word "peacock" is now only really useful in streaming TV.

That might be a regional difference: I've heard cock or cockerel plenty of times in British English. We even sang a song at primary school called "The Golden Cockerel" in assemblies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkoWrj_IBWo

It has become more common to say rooster in recent times, sure, probably because of the slang usage.

Fun fact: Rooster Rock in Oregon looks nothing like a rooster, because it was originally Cock Rock. Because that's what it looks like, and even the Indians named it for that.

Will lecoqsportif.com be next?

I remember childhood-me finding that name quite amusing.

Of course I'm much too grown up now to find it funny....

It's a word that has, in the English language, been a euphemism for "penis" essentially forever.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/cock

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the tone of your comment, are you suggesting that we don't rename things that lead to people feeling unwelcome in a community?

EDIT:

Turns out I was misunderstanding the context; I misread it as something like "look how offended these people get omg", but in reality it looks like the poster was saying that it's sad that we live in a world where this might need to be changed [1]. Entirely my fault!

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26739571

I think it's going a bit far to put it on "unwelcome" just by a name that was selected in another language. But I do get the marketing issue for English speakers with it sounding like cock and of course some people feeling uncomfortable using the name.

Ironically _Code of Conducts_ adopted by many projects nowadays for this very reason also is frequently shorted to CoC which creates the same problem.

FWIW, I read the comment as suggesting it's sad that the rename is needed, rather than suggesting it's sad that the rename is happening.

Pretty much, yeah.

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood. I amended my comment.

You are misunderstanding the meaning not the tone. The OP is lamenting that the bar for "feeling unwelcome" is being lowered. Not that unwelcoming language is being removed.

Problem is that this decision is extremely anglophone centric. Nobody is calling for the Verge to rename because it is an unwelcoming name for French. (It means penis)

Embarrassing people away from reading the Verge is doing them a service.

That's a transparent attempt at concern trolling.

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