Someone posted last week about long, unpronounceable generic names for drugs. This morning I found, via ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vass, a WHO website about choosing those names, including the meanings of a large assortment of stems (things like -micin and -mab). Some of the entries are things like "-tredekin (see -kin)" followed by an explanation of what the longer stem means.
The handbook also says to avoid the letters H and K, and use I instead of Y, to make pronunciation easier in various languages. That makes sense, and also reduces the number of possible names.
I am reminded here of "Exxon," a name carefully chosen not to mean anything in any language. If I recall correctly, there's only language that uses "xx" in words, Maltese, and "is 'exxon' a word in Maltese" was relatively easy to answer, compared to something like "is 'mitepunac' a word in any of the languages spoken anywhere we might be doing business?"
vass, a WHO website about choosing those names, including the meanings of a large assortment of stems (things like -micin and -mab). Some of the entries are things like "-tredekin (see -kin)" followed by an explanation of what the longer stem means.The handbook also says to avoid the letters H and K, and use I instead of Y, to make pronunciation easier in various languages. That makes sense, and also reduces the number of possible names.
I am reminded here of "Exxon," a name carefully chosen not to mean anything in any language. If I recall correctly, there's only language that uses "xx" in words, Maltese, and "is 'exxon' a word in Maltese" was relatively easy to answer, compared to something like "is 'mitepunac' a word in any of the languages spoken anywhere we might be doing business?"
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