Nothing brave about it: Adani renames 'Carmichael' coalmine to 'Bravus' mistaking it for ‘brave’

Indian conglomerate Adani group's mining company, the Carmichael coalmine in central Queensland on November 5 renamed its Australian operations as 'Bravus'. Chief executive David Boshoff has said that the medieval Latin word means 'courageous'. However, lingual experts claim the meaning of the word is 'crooked', 'deformed', 'mercenary' or 'assassin'.

Stating the 'Bravus' was a good fit for the firm, Boshoff told the Australian Financial Review that the firm was named as it 'took a lot of courage to get where we are and we will stand up for what we believe in.'

On the contrary, lingual experts opine that 'Bravus' doesn't even come close to the word brave, while is more accurately translated as 'crooked' or 'mercenary'.

Adani Enterprises posts Rs 436 crore quarterly profit in September quarter.

Among the major lingual experts, Australian National University’s Dr Christopher Bishop stated that 'bravus' did not mean 'brave' in either classical or medieval Latin. "They are wrong. It would have to be something like ‘fortis’, for brave, if you are going for your classical. You know, something like ‘fortuna favet fortibus – fortune favours the brave’. That’s a schoolboy thing – everyone knows that," The Guardian quoted Dr Bishop as saying.

University of Sydney's Dr Juanita Feros Ruys agreed to Dr Christopher Bishop. "The most common Latin term for the concept of ‘brave’ would be ‘fortis’ (from where we derive ‘fortify’, ‘fortitude’) and that would appear to be the case for both classical and medieval Latin, for each of which there are many examples," the daily quoted Dr Ruys as saying.

Looking for detail, Prof Tim Parkin from the University of Melbourne found for 'bravus' in a dictionary of medieval Latin. "It tends to be used of someone who is villainous. A crook, or a bandit, or a cut-throat," he said.

Launched by the Adani Group in 2014, the Carmichael coal mine project has been controversial and has been in news. Speaking on the latest renaming controversy, Bravus' spokesperson said that the name was "derived from the words ‘brave’ or ‘bold’."

"It includes the ‘us’ suffix, highlighting the inclusive nature of us the company, us the employees and us the community. It references the fact we are an Australian company by having the letters ‘AUS’ in the name. It signifies that we are proud to be an Australian company that is part of the North Queensland community," AFR quoted Bravus's spokesperson as saying.

Earlier this year, Adani had quietly changed the name and rebranded its Abbot Point coal terminal to the North Queensland Export Terminal. Similar moves were adopted by Google and Facebook in the recent past.