Oftentimes it is assumed that a word in one language is meaningless in another.
For example: in the United States there are often untranslated product names that, while consumers may not understand the meaning of the name, customers do acknowledge it as a legitimately ethnic product.
Sometimes, however, this is not the case. Sometimes when a product name is left untranslated it is a false cognate.
Sometimes this is harmless, sometimes it can be image ruining.
There are countless examples of the false cognate “mist,” which is a word in both English and German.
Mist, in English, means a wispy cloud of liquid.
Mist, in German, means manure or dung.
Some companies that made this oversight:
Irish Mist Whiskey.
Clairol Mist Stick
The company that noticed:
Rolls Royce planned to call the successor to their “Silver Cloud,” the “Silver Mist,” but renamed it the “Silver Shadow,” prior to production, after realizing the car’s unintended German meaning.
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