"Sheldon Brown" <captbike@sheldonbrown.com> skrev i melding 
news:42B9913E.6050602@sheldonbrown.com...
> Dale Benjamin wrote:
>
>> I have a Shimano Deore front Deraileur on my bicycle.  I wanted to 
>> get a Sora
>> for the back, but the authorized dealer here didn't have any with 
>> long cages, I
>> got a Tiagra instead.
>
> You're better off, the Sora rear derailer is kinda cheesy, with 
> major plastic structural parts.
>
>> Names.  It makes me wonder sometimes.  Being an uneducated sort of 
>> lout, I don't
>> have a clue.  All Japanese stuff, of course.
>>
>> What does "Shimano" mean in Japanese, anyway?  Something like 
>> "International
>> Harvester", maybe, or just the name of one of the early investors?
>
> Shimano is the family name of the founder and the current owners of 
> the company.
>
>> How about Deore, Sora, Tiagra, what's the translation?
>
> Those are all made up names, not unlike Sony, Walkman, Corolla, 
> Camry and the like.  The Japanese often have difficulty coming up 
> with English-like brand/model names that make any sense.
>
> I believe Deore is supposed to mean "golden" due to its similarity 
> to that term in several romance languages. (D'or in French, d'oro in 
> Italian, something similar in Spanish.)
>
> Shimano often uses trendy terms chopped apart and stuck together.
>
> "Exage" was made by grafting "excelence" "new age."
>
> "Ultegra" derives from "ultimate" and "integrity."
>
> I have little doubt that Tiagra was derived from a popular 
> pharmaceutical that was very much in the news at the time (and is 
> now in all of our email mailboxes.)
>
> Sheldon "ShelBroCo" Brown
> +---------------------------------------------------------+
> |   Man does not live by words alone,                     |
> |   despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.   |
> |                                     --Adlai Stevenson   |
> +---------------------------------------------------------+
>     Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
>        Phone 617-244-9772  FAX 617-244-1041
>             http://harriscyclery.com
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>

I am told that Honda were going to name one of their cars "Fitta". 
When somebody told them what this word meant in scadinavian (yes, it`s 
one of the most four-letters of all four-letters), they exchanged it 
for "Jazz"..

HelgeK