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

[Andrew Buc <abuc@ibm.net>]

Addressed to: sefisher@cisco.com
              Audi List <quattro@coimbra.ans.net>

** Reply to note from Scott Fisher <sefisher@cisco.com> Fri, 14 Aug 1998 11:38:11 -0700
>   
> (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.) 

I think his first name was August. And doesn't the Reinheitsgebot deal
w/brewing beer? :)
 
> 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.
>   
I forget the exact circumstances of his leaving his original company. But I
think he was bought out, and part of the deal was that he was free to go off
and make more cars, but not w/a Hoerch badge on them. The inspiration to use
"Audi" came from his son.