Originally Posted by
rpenmanparker
A linguistic question: is the Serbo-Croatian word for bicycle masculine, and is that the reason for naming the bike with a masculine form of the word cat? Or do you just think of Machak that way? I'm tempted to ask because someone earlier in the thread mentioned anthropomorphizing the bike instead of assuming it was just gender naturally assigned by your native language.
I am anthropomorphising the bicycle ... the first time I rode my brand new custom Marinoni Ciclo back in 2003, I decided that it was a "he", and named him "Machak".
(My native language is English ... I just know a few words of my grandfather's language.)