I'm from the Netherlands and Googling "munt" returns nothing strange.
Reminds me of a colleague who named his new technology "spics" (it easy to pronounce and as an acronym is fitted perfectly)... Only after some weeks he googled it. It's changed now needless to say.
Indeed, imagine the horror all the English speakers have when the come to Netherlands and are offered verse munt thee!
How silly those Dutch are for inventing a word before English existed, and then continuing to use it today even when apparently a sliver of the English speakers of the world think it means something bad.
Well, if it's being marketed to an English speaking audience, they will need to consider whether the name has negative connotations regardless of where it originated.
American companies have to be sensitive to this when expanding into new markets too.
Although, occasionally, they make mistakes. Coca-cola tried to sell water with a campaign that declared it 'bottled spunk', in the early 00's. Spunk, in english english, means semen.
That's the problem. If you look broadly enough, you will find someone who is offended by some of your words. You will never get everyone to agree on what is "ok".
Unfortunately common things in one language often mean other things in another language. The author is clearly trying to share this with the English speaking world, (the site is English after all), so it stands to reason that you would choose your words carefully in English.
Interesting, so since it is/was used primarily in South Africa and Afrikaans has its roots in Dutch I'd guess that's actually the root of the derogatory use as well. As in "people traded with coin".
Probably unnecessary nitpick, but here goes: the actual derogatory term is "Munter" rather than just simply the word "Munt".
For example, I saw [INSERT NAME HERE] and they were looking like a total Munter. when it is used in a derogatory sense I think it is more often used when talking about [INSERT APPROPRIATE PRONOUN FOR PERSON WITH VAGINA HERE], but as far as I'm aware it can be applied to both/all/neither/X sexes/genders/species.
ETA: This is my second edit because apparently I don't understand how HN works after all this time. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
No, the Oxford dictionary definition for the product's name as cited is correct in the regions it says it is. The existence of other, similar derogatory terms in other regions is secondary, if anything.
Interesting, I always equated pills with "munted" but those other permutations always meant something very different. Maybe it's a regional thing in the UK?
Wiktionary says that munter and munted are from New Zealand, which I'm not sure about but could give it a regional spread - it's been common here in London for nearly two decades, but we have quite a few Anzacs here!
Reminds me of a colleague who named his new technology "spics" (it easy to pronounce and as an acronym is fitted perfectly)... Only after some weeks he googled it. It's changed now needless to say.