What's In A Word?

Previous legend || What's In A Word? || Next legend

Bite the Wax Tadpole

There are a variety of ways to spell "Coca Cola" with Chinese characters. One of these, while sounding similar to the English name, literally means "bite the wax tadpole." The Coca Cola company never used this spelling, although in the 1930s evidently some Chinese shopkeepers used it on hand-lettered signs. The official transliteration means "permit mouth to be able to rejoice" in Mandarin.

Documented: The Chinese characters for "Coca-cola" could sound like those for "bite the wax tadpole."

Unknown: Pepsi had a similar episode where "Come Alive with Pepsi!" is rendered as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead!" in Chinese.

References:

• AFU Archive: Coca-Cola Chinese