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- Subject: Re: New meaning of the term "Sputnik"
- From: Dirk Laurie <dirk.laurie@...>
- Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:04:03 +0200
2012/7/24 Yuri Takhteyev <yuri@sims.berkeley.edu>:
>> My recollection is that the English translation of Sputnik is "fellow
>> traveler" - it had nothing to do with "satellites", natural or
>> artificial. ;-)
>
> When Korolev's team finally got around to building one, they
> called it "Prosteishii sputnik 1" - "Basic satellite 1". I don't think
> there was any creativity or poetry in this name. It's really just
> about the least creative thing they could have called it.
The moment you use even the most commonplace word
from one language as a specialized term in another, it sounds
wildly romantic.
Like "Lua" in English.
