The Coq mailing list

[Dominique Unruh <unruh AT ut.ee>]

Hi,

since it is the pronunciation, not the spelling that seems to make 
anglophones think of penises, one solution would be to pronounce it as 
"see oh cue". The advantage of this is that there is no need to change 
an established name, and that anyone can make their own choice about it. 
Like with the term SQL vs "seequel", conversation works perfectly well 
without a consensus on this point. From the side of the community, the 
only requirement would be to accept the alternative pronunciation (i.e., 
people don't say: "you are wrong, it's not pronounced see-oh-cue, only 
kok is the right pronunciation").

And another side thought: Maybe there is too much emphasis on the fact 
that the name resulted from a joke. I don't know the history, but wasn't 
the tool called CoC before the joke, which would make people as 
uncomfortable? I think it is important to emphasize the parts of the 
etymology that do not reemphasize the conception of Coq as a "dirty word".

Best wishes,
Dominique.