Comments on: How Kate got X-rated

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:06:43 +0000

There is a german word “Kate”, but germans never say it.
Probably most germans even don’t know it (except those
who do crossword puzzles).

By: smorg

smorg — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:47:19 +0000

@Matt Smith: but Kate is a German word A “Kate” is a small house (for living) on the countryside. In other places of Germany this is often called Kotten. The British word would be Cottage.

By: Vyk

Vyk — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:39:46 +0000

Brilliant story. Ha.

I love kate as an editor and always wondered where the name arose, as it isn’t as intuitive as most other applications, e.g. kwrite.

By: Matt Smith

Matt Smith — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:28:44 +0000

Good idea. The name “Kant” is commonly pronounced by Americans (well, if at all) in a way that sounds like “can’t” to British English speakers; British English speakers would pronounce it the same as “cant” which means insincere, hypocritical statements; the actual German pronunciation sounds more like an English swear word. So, Kate is a much better name.

Actually, if Kate was a German word it would be pronounced like “Carter”, so you could use “Get Kate” as a slogan. (Ever seen that film? Famous for a guy being thrown out of a multi-storey car park through someone’s windscreen.)