An amusing legal contretemps from “Facebook disputes Belgian tracking order over use of English in court ruling,” by Samuel Gibbs of the Guardian:
Facebook is objecting to the use of English words such as “cookie” and “browser” in a Belgian court order, which has demanded the site stop tracking users without their consent, saying that Belgians may not understand the words. […]
Dirk Lindemans, a lawyer representing Facebook Belgium told the Belgian newspaper De Tijd: “It is a requirement that justice can be understood by everyone. Otherwise you get a slippery slope towards class-biased justice.”
But “the strength of Facebook’s argument on this point is questionable”:
The Dutch for “web browser” is “webbrowser” for instance, while in French it is “browser” or “navigateur”. An internet “cookie”, as opposed to a biscuit, is “cookie” in all three languages.
Thanks, Bathrobe!
Cookie, coincidentally, is from Dutch koekje via New Netherland.
The Hebrew language academy had a field day with this one: קוקית /kukit/ preserves the sound of the original, has a Hebrew template ring to it, and channels the cukoo, which lays its eggs where they don’t belong, just like a browser cookie.