'Noku': power-napping, little pea or zizi?
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Yes, European languages are very funny. In my feature on Estonian economy I realised in Tallinn, I wrote about a conversation I had with the Spanish entrepreneur Javier Ortiz in the Noku bar, a lounge club in Tallinn.
I precised that, in Estonian language, 'noku' means little boy's penis. But I wrote my article in Italian.
And in Dante's language this is said 'pisellino', litterally 'little pea'. So the English translator initially wrote... 'little pea' and I was alerted by Martin, an Estonian reader, who let me laugh a lot.
I then spoke with my German colleague who told me her translator had translated it with 'Nickerchen' which means 'power-napping'... Why did she translated like so? Because in Italian 'power-napping' is said 'pisolino', a word very similar (phonetically speaking) to 'pisellino'. Congratulations to Spanish and French translators who, with their 'picha' and 'zizi' exactly got it!