The PalmInfoCenter has just claimed that “a trusted source” has informed it that the internal name referring to Palm OS II is going to be Nova; and that the operating system is currently being tested on a new handheld codenamed Zeppelin.
Immediately, commenters began to bicker about how NoVa means won’t go in French – as a person who can read and write French a little, I can tell you that this is completely wrong. In France, negation always has two parts…which are usually ne and a second word, commonly pas. So, a negated French statement looks like this:
ne statementnegator word(pas, rien, plus..)
The grammar above leads us to ne va pas…so we are facing yet another urban legend.
However, NoVa means something else to Austrians: it is a type of tax that is to be paid when new cars are purchased. This so-called Normverbrauchsabgabe(average consumption fee) is calculated by the amount of Fuel needed by a car; and is intended to discourage people from purchasing cars that need loads of fuel.
Related posts:
I don’t think anyone ever claimed that “No Va” means anything in French, the claim was always the Spanish translation of the Chevy Nova in Latin America. From Wikipediea:
A popular urban legend asserts that the Nova sold poorly in Latin America because the phrase no va means “doesn’t go” in Spanish. In reality, if a Spanish-speaking person were to say that his car was not working, he would more likely use the terms no marcha or no funciona, (”does not run” or “does not work/function”, respectively) instead, just as an English-speaking person would be more likely to say “this car doesn’t work”, than say “this car doesn’t go.”[1] The word nova, as opposed to no va, exists in Spanish with the same meaning as in English. Also, the Spanish word for “new” (nuevo or nueva) is a cognate to nova, which originally meant “new” in Latin.
This gives me an opportunity to ask you Deutches speakers:
Did the Commodore Vic-20 computer have the same name in German-speaking countries? And is “vic” an impolite word in German, as the story goes?
I think the company should have learned from their mistake of marketing Commodore PET computers in French-speaking countries (where “pet” means fart).
As long as it works, doesn’t crash, multitasks, has a full desktop feel with Palms “special sauce” and the Browser supports AJAX, I don’t care if it’s an English profanity
Hi bb,
On PIC, yes they did…
I must agree with Brent here, internal name is internal name…
We’ll decide if le OS ne va pas come 200….2025 was it?
Best Regards,
Ryan Rix
Well… it’s true it means “new” in latin, and it’s extrapolated to spanish, meaning “new” too. But you can play with the word splitting it in “no va” wich in spanish means “doesn’t go”, extrapolated can mean “will not be”…
I think Palm has said too many times “will not be”, like “will not be” Foleo, “will not be” WiFi on Treos, “will not be” Cobalt, “will note be” TX2… so I think “Nova” talks precisely about the company policies of growing… oops did I said growing?? Sorry but i was told that growing “no va”.
Hehehehehe
Hi,
yep – Wichsen(spoken Vixen) means to wank…
Best regards
Tam Hanna
While it is true that a spanish speaking person is more likely to say “no funciona” for “doesn’t work”, The phrase “no va” is often coloquioally used in, for instance, “el coche no va”. Every spanish speaker will understand the joke, but I don’t think sales will resent for that.
Hi,
I have to completely agree – I think that the value of “sensible naming” is significantly overvalued…
Just because a gadget is called Wont Go or Death, that doesnt do much about its features and usefulness…at least for me.
Best regards
Tam Hanna