Today's word according to e-mail yesterday is "generic". The pink bar above still says it is
"webliography".
I think the definition given by guest wordsmith of cheap toilet paper, is not really well chosen. My
dictionary gives "without a brand name" as second definition. and I do not think that well chosen either.
Just about nothing gets sold without a brand name, be it ever so humble.
And I suspect the most common way board members will encounter the word is when they get a
prescription filled for which an insurance company pays. You never get the top brand that way. There
are companies that even after paying royalties can make the same drug more cheaply than the
originator, but they have to give it another name. For instance I used to take "Cardizem" I now get the
same drug as a knock-off called "Diltiazem."
You will see drug company propaganda alleging that the "generics" are not to be trusted. Baloney. To
suggest that Bayer Aspirin is better than Walmart's cheapo brands of acetyl salicylic acid is absurd. I
have made aspirin. The only trick is to get rid of traces of the starting materials.
So "generic" is most often a charitable name for a knock-off.