Note Well this post.

[fionnbharro]

I do a lot of technical documentation.  As in: Part of my job is writing Technical Documents and instructions.

I use "N.B." all the freaking time.  As in "N.B.: This step is dangerous", or "N.B.: The 'units' portion of 'quantity' will not print on the report".

Apparently, nobody but my manager and myself knew what that meant.  Stupid Cow-orkers.

Comments

[aimeric]

It means NooB :)
No, wait, it's the symbol for Niobium...

[fionnbharro]

Nubbin Bumper
Nice Boobs
Nipple Bite
Not Bad
Nasty Bruise
Nefertiti Blockhead
Nosferatu Bitemarks
Nerdy Bitch
NYSERNet Backbone
Nanny Bib
Nitrate Bacon
Nickel Back
North Bumfuck
Nissan Bumper

[aimeric]

Turns out it's also a (positive) expletive in Mandarin. I kid you not. See the second entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese_profanity#Positive_connotations

(Working with a lot of Chinese speakers...I clearly need to study this page very well :) )

[fionnbharro]

I believe it's pronounced "newbie", not "enn-bee".

But whatever: In grad school, I made the comment to a Chinese national student that one professor never came out of his office except to go home, or pop his head out like a turtle when something noisy happened in the hallway.

Of all the words I asked Chinese translations for (I dont' know his particular dialect, though), he would not wouldn't would NOT give me the word for Turtle.

I've always suspected the word for turtle was also an expletive. I wonder what the euphemism for 'turtle' (the animal) is.

Just like 'rooster' is an euphemism for 'male chicken'.

[sodeartomyheart]

Note Bene ... Note Well. Ah, I use it all the time. I just assumed that everyone knew what it meant. But then I also work with people who can't read cursive writing.