Define "the authors". Gérard Huet, who wrote the software almost 35 years ago was definitely aware of the meaning, and indeed this was done in order to overtly piss off the prudish Amercians.

In the current core development team, I think it is reasonable to say that most people range somewhere on a scale from "don't care" to "mildly annoyed". Amongst the annoyed group, some actually advocate for a change of name.