(Chevy) Nova --Query

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>I think "nova" in Spanish means
>>about the same as "nova" in English, right?
>
>Well, "nueva", but there are number of more high-register (scholarly,
>literary, scientific) doublets involving "nova-" in which the
>diphthongization didn't apply, e.g. "novela".  I think the first
>association for a Spanish speaker with "Nova", with that stress
>pattern (a point Snopes mentions), would be 'new' and not 'doesn't
>go'.

I didn't mean to refer to the Spanish cognate "nuevo"/"nueva" (or to the
English cognate "new"). I meant exactly "nova", which means AFAIK "suddenly
[and transiently] very bright star" or so, same in Spanish as in English.
Of course "new" is the primary meaning of "nova" in Latin, which would also
be widely recognized among Spanish- or English-speakers. It's not obvious
to me which of these ideas (if either) was intended to be evoked when GM
chose the name.

-- Doug Wilson