Pumpkin

Oh boy. How could this be possible?
He must have sensed something…

… However, the word ‘Pumpkin’ behaves in a different way. It has a culture-specific conceptual property in American culture with a positive value: pumpkin pie is something that almost everybody loves, and parents often use this word to address their children […] these culture-specific conceptual properties can be cross-culturally misleading. A conversation similar to the one above could not take place in the Hungarian culture where the equivalent of the English word ‘Pumpkin’ is ‘Tok’ which has a culture-specific conceptual property with a negative
value. Hungarian children would not be happy if they were addressed by the word ‘Tok’ which may mean “stupid” (p.37).

You will never believe that I encountered the quote when scanning his book, which was published six years ago. It’s amazing that he had made such a preemptive move. It’s incredible indeed!!