Forwarding as Deepa's new address was not then on silk. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [silk] Ford Figo (was sociolinguistic query) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:30:22 +0530 From: Deepa Mohan <[email protected]> To: [email protected]
On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 4:21 PM, Giancarlo Livraghi <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Suresh Ramasubramanian [today] > This thread seems to say figo - the masculine - > is cool while the feminine, figa is vagina, > and by extension, hot, sexy etc? No, it doesn't work that way (though someone in Ford seems to think so). It starts with the fact figa is jargon for vagina - therefore sexy. From what used to be a rude male expression it has (strangely) extended to a broader meaning, such as "attractive" or "nice" - even in a non-sexual context. A quaint result is that "figo" (though the word never existed in the language, not even in jargon) can be said of a male - or of anything called with a "masculine" word. Anyhow, everyone in Italy, even when using the word freely in extended ways, is well aware of its original meaning. It would be ridiculous for a car, or any other product, to be branded "figa" or "figo" in Italian. Yes... the word "sexy" itself has grown to a broader and often non-sexy meaning...it's now universally used to describe anything that's appealing to the speaker, without a second thought to its original context. In India, we don't seem to have this kind of "brand resistance". We have a Japanese brand called "Yamaha" that sells pretty well, thank you, when Yama is the God of Death. Deepa.
