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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 17 |
Does anyone know the word that describes the practice of using a BRAND name to refer to a product even if it is another brand? E.g. we call any facial tissue "a Kleenex" (even it is a Scottie) or we call any clear plastic film wrap "Saran Wrap".
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Joined: Nov 2000
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
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We had a brief conversation about this quite recently, I think last week. I forget what thread it was on.
I don't know that there is a name for this; the closest I can come is "synecdoche". [There's glory for you, as Humpty-Dumpty said.]
There are plenty of other examples, like "vaseline", "Coke", in the UK "hoover".
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've been told that, in Business Law, this is called generification.  -joe bfstplk
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Posts: 76
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 76 |
the closest I can come is "synecdoche"
I think synecdoche means calling a whole for one of its parts, like "greasy spoon" for a diner, or "gumshoe" for a detective....
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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And it's the only one of its tribe I remember, because of the kid who pronounced "cynic duck."
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
We had a brief conversation about this quite recently, I think last week. I forget what thread it was on.'Twas in Mangled English for Corporate Identity. There are plenty of other examples, like "vaseline", "Coke", in the UK "hoover".Ironic that the Spanish word for grease should become an English language brand name. The name very honestly just tells us what it is! I have a really funny one, however, along these lines: An industrial lubricant company in the USofA produces a spray can of penetrating lubricant that they call "Pene-Grease." "Pene" is the Spanish word for "penis"  Coke originally referred to the cocaine in it, and, of course, continues to this day to mean cocaine in street terms. Hoover, even here in the USA, still equates with vacuum cleaner to many of a certain age.
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Hoover
Yes, Geoff, "hoover" is often used for "vacuum cleaner", but we only use it as a noun. In the UK, it's also a verb, as in, to hoover the carpet. I can't think of any instance offhand in U.S. usage where a brand name has become a verb, with the possible exception of "Brillo"; my wife used to say that she would need to brillo a frying pan.
(In case outlanders don't have this, "Brillo" is the brand name of a metal-fiber scouring pad.)
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addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
I too have heard a word used to describe the use of a brand name in this way. In fact, I heard it several years ago, and recall being pleased to have learned it. Maddeningly, I forgot it a bit after learning it, and its absence returns (if that can happen) to haunt me periodically.
So - can we come up with it here, or will this annoying lacuna in my vocabulary continue to be a little, tiny thorn in my side?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Tsuwm suggested "generification" which sounds good to me.
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 1 |
I am sorry for busting in on this thread, but I need help and I don't know where to turn. Perhaps someone here can direct me to the proper place. I need a word:
Prediction implies the future. Is there a word to describe a theory (scientific) that makes predictions about the past. If I have a set of observations, my theory can't be said to "predict" these past observations, even though it does explain them. Postdict?
Thank you in advance.
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