Audire, audimus, audit... uh, say what?

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@cisco.com>]

Brett Dikeman (whose signature file hints that he really ought to know
better) asks about Audi:

> Is that what AUDI stands for?  I was always told it mean "to listen", 
> ie, the companies merged and "listened" to each other, the "listen" 
> to consumers/drivers.  

This looks like a job for... Mister Dead Language Guy!

Audi is in fact a Latin word: the 2nd person imperative form of the verb
audire, which means "to hear."  Its use in the automotive sense comes
from the firm's original founder, whose last name was Hoerch (and there
should be an umlaut over that o but I don't wanna poke around the keyset
to figure out how to do that).  (I'm also now not entirely sure about
Herr Hoerch's first name; my sometimes leaky carbon-based memory unit is
coming up with Gustav but I thought it was part of the Reinheitsgebot
that all German automotive-firm founders had to be named Ferdinand, just
as all French kings had to be named Louis.)  

But I digress.  Hoerch had earlier started a company making a car
called, with a singular lack of imagination, the Hoerch, then later went
on for reasons I cannot recall to found a second company.  "Hoerch" is
the German cognate of the English word "hark," or "listen up, y'all" in
American Hillbilly Speak, since someone brought it up recently -- in
either case, it's the 2nd person imperative form of the verb "hoeren,"
to hear.  Since Herr Hoerch appears to have some classical education, he
named his second company Audi.

(A minor punctilio: both "hoerch" and "audi" are of course 2nd person
SINGULAR, while "y'all" is the globally familiar Southeast North
American dialect's pseudo-enclitic indicating 2nd-person PLURAL. 
Changing to the equally familiar Southwest North American dialect,
"audi" might perhaps be better served by the translation, "Listen up,
pilgrim."  Thank you.)

Later, when Audi merged with three other companies to form Auto Union
(the prime example of whose magnificent Grand Prix cars will "stiffen
the sinews, summon up the blood" tomorrow about this time!), the merger
of the four companies was signified in the four rings of the Auto Union
logo.  Auto Union was of course a *proper* German automobile company as
its chief engineer *was* named Ferdinand, though it is highly unlikely
that their products contained only barley, hops, water and yeast.

After World War II, which some say was caused because Hitler decided it
would be cheaper and more competitive to invade Poland than to continue
to fund the combined racing efforts of Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz, my
knowledge of Audi history grows shaky till the introduction to the U.S.
of the 100 and the "Fox."  For example, I am unclear why the combined
firm dropped the name "Auto Union" in favor of "Audi."  Unless it was,
in postwar years, in an attempt to shake the image of Auto Union as the
Official Racing Vehicle of the National Socialist Party of Germany. 
Hmmm, would Audi management change a name to try to make people forget
about an embarrassing part of their history?  

> Perhaps it's just a dumb rumor...

No, dumb rumors are the purview of U.S. television.

There is *also* no truth to the rumor that when Ferdinand (zu letsten,
ein edel-Deutsche gesellschaft!) Piech was developing the original
Quattro, he was planning to title it the Quattuor in keeping with the
Latin roots of the company's name.  And I personally have never seen a
5000 with the apocryphal "Quinque Mille" badges.

--Scott "Audi est omnia divisa in partes Quattuor" Fisher