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by ben_w 535 days ago
Some time around 2011, the Apple App store was warning me about rude words in the app description; unfortunately it was warning me about the German word "Knopf" which isn't rude. I think what happened is the English rude word list was translated into German, rather than just replaced with local rude words.
1 comments

Button?
The word "knob" would also translate as "Knopf" in the sense of button, while also having a euphemistic meaning of "penis".
German native speaker here.

in no region or context does Knopf mean anything offensive, especially not "penis".

Yes, I know. My words seem to be easily misunderstood. The claim is that:

1) "knob" *in English* can mean "penis"

2) This is why "knob" was on the English rude words list

3) It looks like a rude word list containing "knob" was translated without context, so that the word "knob" became "Knopf" even though "Knopf" isn't rude.

Wäre es andersherum gewesen, wäre es so, dass „Schlange“ sowohl <<en:queue>> als auch <<en:penis>> bedeutet, und wenn „queue“ in einer englischen Liste mit Schimpfwörtern stünde, wären die meisten Leute sehr verwirrt.

ah. das kam so nicht rüber, thanks for clarifying.