My hovercraft is full of eels; or, labelling follies

[unixronin]

I've been installing and/or replacing a few lights recently, including a couple of track light systems in the kitchen and elsewhere.  I picked up an electrical connection kit for one of these today, after realizing part-way through installation that the type I had wasn't going to work in my application.

What I got is labelled in English as a "End Feed Connector".  This is translated on the package into Spanish as "Conector de alimentacíon de extremo".

Now, I don't speak any significant amount of Spanish.  But, based on my knowledge of word roots in various different language families, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that just maybe, alimentacíon (food and nourishment for the body, from Latin alimentum/ailimentarius, nourishment, pertaining to food) wasn't quite the right word here.  Suministro (supply, provision), or even aprovisionamiento, is probably a bit closer to the mark, and suministro eléctrico would probably hit the nail pretty close to the head (particularly since I found that exact phrase as a dictionary example, translated as 'electrical supply').  And I have a suspicion they got extremo wrong as well ... I suspect fin or possibly punta is closer to correct.

I can't help wondering whether native Spanish-speakers giggle as much when they see package text like this as native English-speakers do when we see a prime example of "Engrish as she is spoke".

Comments

7 words for you

[glitch25.livejournal.com]

All your base are belong to us. :-)

Re: 7 words for you

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME
HA HA HA

[tww1fa]

Actually, "alimentacion" is the correct Spanish electrical engineering term. And "extremo" is used for "end" much more often than it's used for "extreme" so it's correct idiomatically as well.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Huh.......

Based on the word roots, my first thought when I see "alimentacíon" is "digestion", not "supply". Now, had it been a kitchen garbage disposal... :)

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

I'm amused ever so often with some of the French translations I encounter. Since anything sold in the country must have dual labeling, sometimes imported products have translations that were clearly NOT done by native Francophones. I'll keep my eye open and post some of the more humorous ones.