A "passport word" is a word that means something general in another language, but which is imported into English to mean something specifically from a country or area where that language is used.

This process of converting a general word into a specific trace element has a counterpart in the way we view other cultures, as Aorto explains in another thread. We know only a tiny bit and we make that tiny bit into the whole.

Aorto gave the example of "Ya mon" representing all of Jamaican culture*, as I recall. Tsuwm came up with a word she liked to describe this phenomenon: desublimation.

Hope u come back, Flatlander.

re Conversely to that narrowing of denotation is what happens when our experience of potential meaning expands. Yeah, we even have a special word for this process… ;)

Enjoyed your analysis, Maverick. But then you left me hanging.

What's the special word for this process - where the original essence or "denotation" expands into an entire range of products? Marketing?

All the leading consumer multi-nationals do it. Nike is the best example I can think of. Nike began with track shoes in 1962 [I just checked it out].

Nike and the American Body

Nike appears atop the cultural pyramid and has perched there longer than most companies could dream. Katz (1994) descries that "special Nike strain of the myriad intricacies of cool," whereby Nike has come to interject itself into the fabric of culture by defining what it means to be irreverent, athletic, and entirely 'with it.'

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CLASS/am483_97/projects/hincker/nike.html

Maybe SWOOSH would be a good word for the phenomenon you are describing, Maverick.

* Here's what Aorto said [in "Is there a word for ...?" thread, Q&A]:

Here's an example. My spouse is from Jamaica. We all know the cliche, the 'Ya mon' which brings to mind Jamaicans with dreadlocks. Aside from the fact that it is mispronounced by everyone, the cultural meaning is lost.