The Big Think: Funny things about language
Yea, it's a bit of a controversy, but I find this "accident of language" to be very interesting.
It's the abortion pill. It's commonly known by its developmental name RU486. This is a standard practice for pharmaceutical companies to have letters representing the company name and a numerical sequence that reflects the compound in development. For RU486, the RU was for Roussel Uclaf.
Here's where it gets interesting...
When you read this out loud...RU486...it sounds like "ARE YOU FOR 86?"
ARE YOU FOR...what? What does 86 mean? Simply put, it commonly means "to get rid of". (As in the expression "86-it".)
So the drug name, RU486--the abortion pill--means "ARE YOU FOR GETTING RID OF IT?"
OK. No judgment here. I'm not taking stand in anyway. But I just think it's an interesting observation...that makes you think!
Keep thinking....