kengr

I used to work for the American branch of a German company.

One of the QA people who'd been there for the setup stage (before the actual startup, which was where I came in) told of a technical document that had been translated from German to English by a non-technical translator.

They were puzzled by references to "licking" the silicon wafers. Then when it started talking about a "licking machine" they realized what had happened.

Apparently, in German "lick" and "lap" are also synonyms. It should have been talking about lapping the wafers with a lapping machine.

Lapping is sort of like polishing, but not quite. Lapping is more for get the pieces flat and of uniform thickness. Polishing is about getting them really, really smooth.