Bidder “kevenkou” won the domain etang.com for £22,967 ($35,000 USD) at a NameJet auction yesterday. Quite a few bids were placed- 129, in fact.
In French, “étang” refers to a shallow body of water, such as a pond or marsh, but is also sometimes used to refer to lakes. On the surface, the name doesn’t seem like such a good deal. Some blogs reported that the word means “lake,” and for someone unfamiliar with French, it would be easy to get that impression. The correct French translation for “lake” is “lac.” If the bidders assumed “étang” was the correct word for “lake,” then the name is worth considerably less than what the buyer paid.
Source: The Domains