Kia Motors America

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:51 PM +0800 4/29/08, LanDi Liu wrote:
>  >From their site:
>
>The word "Kia" is derived from the Chinese characters "ki", meaning to
>"arise or come up out of", and "a", referring to Asia.  So when put
>together, "Kia" means to "arise or come up out of Asia".
>
>Shit.  Another noun verbed.  I hate when people noun verbs.  On second
>thought it looks like a verb nouned.  Are there other cars with verbs
>as names?
>
>["ki" is not pinyin, so I'm guessing by the meaning that "qi3" (ãN) and
>"ya4" (-«) are the characters being referred to.]
>
>Randy

Despite the fact that your characters came 
through beautifully, your derivation is mistaken. 
"Kia" obviously comes from the Swahili, where it 
is a homonym whose two different values are both 
relevant.  Nominal "kia" is a lid for covering a 
cooking-pot, which the shape of the car clearly 
resembles, but there's also an influence from the 
unrelated verb "kia", which means 'to step over 
(as of a log, etc.)', which alludes to the 
compact size of the vehicle.  It's important to 
bear in mind that "Kia" is a Class 7-8 
[ki/vi-class] noun, and as such its plural is 
properly "Via", good to know if Paul is 
considering buying more than one.

LH

>
>On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 10:13 PM, Cohen, Gerald 
>Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
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>>   Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>   Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
>>
>>  Subject:      Re: Kia Motors America
>> 
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>   Btw, what is the etymology of this Kia?
>>
>>   Gerald Cohen
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>--
>Randy Alexander
>Jilin City, China
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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