At a global operation, words have new meaning Down Under

CNBC reporter Mike Huckman writes Wednesday about a mistake in word usage that caused some hilarity in the business news network’s Australian operations.

Huckman wrote, “I was assigned to do what we call the ‘PM cut-ins’. Those are the little news blurbs wrapping up the day’s market activity that CNBC reporters and anchors do for MSNBC and for our sister networks overseas including Europe, Asia, India and Australia. Yesterday, shares of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae got spanked.

“It was a major story. So, being the fan that I am of puns and alliteration I wrote that, ‘Shares of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae took it on the fanny.’ I thought I was being witty and clever. Well, in a way, perhaps. Because when I got back to my desk I found this email in my inbox from the CNBC producer of ‘Squawk Box’ in Sydney:

“‘Just a quick point – which we found absolutely hysterical this morning… but in Australia ‘fannie’ means something completely different to what it does in the US…. So your reference to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae getting hit on the fannie was hilarious… I know it means your backside in America, but in Australia it means a woman’s front side… if you get what I mean? hahaha!'”

Read more here.