Humanized Flashlight Design

LED flashlights are often attributed as "Humanized" by Chinese manufacturers. :duh2:

What does Humananized mean? It's a real word, but not a common English term. :shrug:

The primary meaning is to represent or attribute as human. Therefore, the most "Humanized" flashlight I've seen is this:



Dehumanized is a more common English term, "to deprive of human qualities, personality, or spirit". So it's theoretically impossible to dehumanize a flashlight, because it doesn't have human qualities to begin with. :thinking:

There is a less common meaning to humanize, which is to "adapt to human use". This is probably what they mean, such as to make more ergonomic or user friendly. Typically it's easier to push buttons, easier to remember activation, curvy edges, and other practical enhancements that improve function.

Maybe this is the most direct translation from a Chinese term. I find it humorous every time I see or hear it. :laughing:

Have flashlights become so difficult to use that we have to humanize them?

I have to admit I have a flashlight that has no less than 10 different input functions and never seems to do what I want it to. It's not very human friendly, and therefore I seldom use it. :sigh:

Yeeeeaaaahhhhh....

It means "ergonomic".

Me thinks 'humanized' is a poor attempt at saying 'ergonomic design' or 'ergonomically designed'?

I agree it's funny to see the poor translation between Chinese and English all to frequently on these products. I would think that with the apparently good relationship between the consumer, distributor and manufacturer of Fenix; someone somewhere along the line would have stuck the material in front of an 'English as a first language' person and said "does this make sense?"

I'd say THIS is pretty humanized.

jzmtl said:

I'd say THIS is pretty humanized.

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Ah, moonlight.

jzmtl said:

I'd say THIS is pretty humanized.

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I've never seen that before.

HUmanized. Boring, all my lights are made for humans.

Uh I want my lights Simonized.

Yep made for the annoying game Simon. That would be odd especially considering the game already lights up.
:thinking:

jzmtl said:

I'd say THIS is pretty humanized.

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now THAT is comedy!!

Well at least it was not coming out from the front


As for Fenix, the least they could do is ask a few people that has English as first language to help with the wording so it does not end up on www.engrish.com

Unnecessary crudity removed by moderator.

Hi Paul,

Welcome back! It's been awhile, hope all is well. :wave:

Although seemingly a little peculiar, as a translation error it is actually not so far-off - as you mention, one definition of "humanized" is to adapt for human use. Although not used as much in north america, in some parts of the world "human factors" research/science/engineering etc is often used interchangeably with "ergonomics". So I can see the leap to "humanized" for better adapted.

Of course, I have to ask myself if a little knurling or an anti-roll feature is really all that much better adapted. Seems to me the basic flashlight design is pretty humanized to start with.

Good to have you back ...

selfbuilt said:

Hi Paul,

Welcome back! It's been awhile, hope all is well. :wave:

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Likewise. :wave: I find it enjoyable catching up on your reviews....

yeah Paul,
it's been a while.
how're you doin'

sed6 said:

Me thinks 'humanized' is a poor attempt at saying 'ergonomic design' or 'ergonomically designed'?

I agree it's funny to see the poor translation between Chinese and English all to frequently on these products. I would think that with the apparently good relationship between the consumer, distributor and manufacturer of Fenix; someone somewhere along the line would have stuck the material in front of an 'English as a first language' person and said "does this make sense?"

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All Your Base Are Belong To Us

sed6 said:

Me thinks 'humanized' is a poor attempt at saying 'ergonomic design' or 'ergonomically designed'?

I agree it's funny to see the poor translation between Chinese and English all to frequently on these products. I would think that with the apparently good relationship between the consumer, distributor and manufacturer of Fenix; someone somewhere along the line would have stuck the material in front of an 'English as a first language' person and said "does this make sense?"

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You ought to see some of the translations from Japanese to English by Japanese watch manufacturers and retailers...... one needs a reallycreative imagination to figure out what is meant. Still, they do a lot better than I can translating English into any other language, let alone Japanese or Chinese!

I think the term humanized was *******ized into something else now used to describe anything that takes the form, or features that apply to, humans...so anything that resembles any part of a human figure can be considered as Humanized Flashlight Design.

It's rather crude that many of the freely available web-based translators utilize the entire dictionary [including words many of which we may never see on consumer items for another hundred years] and base words on common associations by word at once, not text at once. Certain phrases common to the English and Chinese language that looks and sounds like a beautifully crafted key-lime-pie is often taken apart and translated into a harrowing visual and audio disaster that reminds me of a misbegotten piece of computational malevolence, almost evil in a way...as if the pie fell face first onto the floor then ran over by a cart and still sport a flag that says "bon appetite" :sigh:

Despite the growing mastery of the English language in mainstream China, improper and occasionally inappropriately translated sentences still arise on many items in stores like wally and target [well, target's gotten better]. This will most likely express more concern as time progresses.:candle:

Well, if we are talking about ergonomic designs, I vote for those hand-held, rectangular, '70s headlight look-alikes used by Starfleet in the Star-trek world. They are designed so that you have to hold them above your shoulder to shine them forward. I truly hope that's not the 'next generation' of flashlight design.

If we are talking about resembling human anatomy . . . No! I will not go there!

Dead_Nuts said:

If we are talking about resembling human anatomy . . . No! I will not go there!

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LOL, not all anatomy is appropriate:laughing:

An object or thing with human qualities is called anthropomorphic.

if you really must compare, I'd be willing top bet Humanized comes up on labels far more common than anthropomorphism