Facebook's new name ridiculed by Hebrew speakers | Hacker News Reader

Facebook's new name ridiculed by Hebrew speakers

bbc.co.uk

29 pointsbencollier4914 comments

It's an American company and Meta is an English term so I don't see how that's relevant to anything. I hate Facebook just as much as anyone else but this story is a nothing burger.

I think Meta here is a ancient Greek term honestly, though it is in use in English as well.

There are so many far worse foreign translations. I don’t think “ The Jewish community will ridicule this name for years to come.”.

Average people don’t care about parent company names. Do you realize how many people don’t know what Alphabet is?

Especially since it's only a sound-alike homonym.

They're as likely to make it an enduring joke as English speakers hearing duty would laugh at its similarity to doodie (poop). It just doesn't occur to most people unless they are using it as a synonym when taking the dogs out.

It's also a well known, well used word from Greek origin.

Summary: Meta sounds like the Hebrew word for "dead."

Surprisingly meta

Well in Portuguese it means “fuck”, I think it’s very suitable

Well, I don't think anyone pronouncing this in Portuguese will pronounce this in the way "fuck" would be a word. At least in Brazilian Portuguese, the pronounce is in the same way in English.

According to Google Translate it can mean "consummate" which technically could be the same as "fuck" except without being slang or negative.

In Polish there are two meanings of 'meta':

1) finish line (e.g. of a marathon)

2) a place where you can buy illegal vodka, cigarettes etc. :)

Because Hebrew is gendered Meta (מתה) technically is "she is dead". However that transcription is incorrect and arguably (מטא) is the right one. Those phonics are actually quite common in Hebrew. Similar sounding מטע (Plantation) מטה (Down) מתא(From Cell), מתע (misleading/tricky) could also have been used.

I think that last one looks pretty appropriate, considering the subject matter.

This other meaning was also true when Emacs defined names for its keys. So why the hubbub now ?

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