Re: en_GB, gimp, and erasers

[Thomas Wood <thos gnome org>]

On 16 Mar 2006, at 7:43 pm, Matthew Walton wrote:

> On Thu, 2006-03-16 at 18:36 +0000, Calum Benson wrote:
> > On 16 Mar 2006, at 18:35, Bastien Nocera wrote:
> > > Given the possible derogatory nature of the word rubber, and the
> > > fact that
> > > eraser is actually a better targetted word for this, I'd say to
> > > leave it as
> > > "Eraser".
> >
> > Frankly, it's hard to imagine how anything could have more any more
> > derogatory overtones than the name of the application in question
> > itself!
> >
> > That apart, I'd be inclined to agree that "rubber" just has too much
> > of a snigger-inducing connotation these days, in much the same way
> > that the 'Happy GNOME' gdm theme could probably have been called the
> > 'Gay GNOME' theme 20 years ago without anyone batting an eyelid...
>
> Absolutely. 'Eraser' seems more correct to me, but that might be 
> because
> I'm used to American software that doesn't get localised for en_GB.
>
> Also prudent, due to the aforementioned connotations of the word
> 'rubber'.
>
> Which is even more irrelevant than using rubber to refer to what the
> Americans call an eraser, actually.

Eraser actually does what is says on the tin. Rubber doesn't mean 
anything unless you know the context in this case. Besides, have you 
ever seen a "Rubber" sold in WH Smith?!

Good question though. I wonder how many other dubious Americanisms 
there are. I've always been struck by how many books by British authors 
use -ize. What are we currently using in GNOME en_GB?

-Thomas