I was not entirely correct: the German name of Vick’s health-care products is “Wick”, not “Wick’s”.

Here is their homepage:
http://www.wick.de/

Greetings
khr

Inverted commas are (normally, and in the case under discussion) a visible signifier of the use/mention distinction. mrs tilton @49 & yourself @57 did not use “negro” but mentioned it.

you’re right about ficken, but you’re wrong in thinking that’s a correction.

The German counterpart of “to wank” is wichsen (s/l “vixen”); wichs (s/l “Vicks”) would be the imperative singular.

And while I have no way of checking at the moment, I’m pretty sure you’re also wrong about “Wick’s”, and for that very reason. A German would pronounce that name the way an anglophone pronounces Vicks, and there we’d all be, giggling like schoolchildren. I’ll have a look next time I’m down at the Apotheke, but I think the stuff is sold here under the name “Wick”, which when pronounced à la boche is not going to conjure up any troubling images, save perhaps that of an androgynous young Viking. (If you’re familiar with 1970s German children’s television, you’ll know what I’m referring to.)

Germans reading, as opposed to anglophones saying, “Vicks” wouldn’t think it equivalent to “wank”, b/c they pronounce “V” as F. But that would create problems of its own.

A minor correction: The German ‘Ficken’ is not the equivalent of ‘Wank’ (masturbate), but of ‘F*ck’ (and etymologically related to it)

And in Germany “Vick’s” Health products are labelled “Wick’s”