You must log in or register to comment.
In the UK: Hoover is what everyone called their vacuum cleaner. Can’t stop for tea, I have the hoovering to do at home
Vaseline, Velcro, Mace and Styrofoam aren’t generic? The fuck? I didn’t even know those were trademarked names. Vaseline maybe, but the other three are common enough that I was sure they were generic.
Petroleum jelly, hook and loop, pepper spray, and polystyrene.
polystyrene-foam
I try to avoid using all these names and instead use the more generic names.
What do you use for zipper, super hero, and trampoline?
I too would like to know.
Fastener? Meta human? Bouncy springy thingy?
The German word for zipper is literally “tear/rip fastener” (Reißverschluss)
From Wikipedia: A zipper, zip, fly, or zip fastener, formerly known as a clasp locker
Trampoline: The generic term for the trademarked trampoline was a rebound tumbler
I believe of someone ever asked me to use my Rebound Tumbler I’d be forced to punch them in the face.
XYCL (examine your clasp locker)
I suppose a tweet isn’t a Twitter.
I suppose a toot isn’t a Mastodon.
Zoom was actually a word before 2011
True, but it has gained additional meaning and uses. Before 2011, you could not “join a zoom”, for example.
Trademarks are context sensitive, and zoom was not used as a term for video calls before that. It is interesting that that’s the only one on the list that isn’t also a made up word
Isn’t google a real thing in numbers.
No gogol is a number
No Coke?
Do people really use coke generically? I’ve always thought coke to refer solely to coca-cola. Maybe it’s just a regional thing.
What’s the generic term in your area?
You just say what you want. If you want to refer to all then it’s soda.
Does soda also refer to lemonades? In my region we call it Kola and Limo :D
No, only carbonated drinks.
You lemonade isn’t carbonated?? Damn
Something I find interesting, lino was replaced by vinyl which was worse and plasticy but cheaper and the name carried over.
Most people when they think of floor lino thinka actually of vinyl rather than the actual original!
Wait what? Peoole call pvc flooring linoleum?
Wait, are these the dates when the brand that eventually was deemed a “common word” were first trade marked? I was reading this as the years they were deemed common words.
Cause 2011 is WAYYYY too early for zoom to be common. If anything, that would’ve been Skype on 2011. Similar thing for Tupperware and zipper.
Also, wtf was heroin’s common name before being branded heroin? Lol, also, I can’t help but imagine heroin got its name as some kind of “there’s a hero in every needle” marketing campaign.
year the brand name was first introduced.
It says so in the legend. Zoom has been a word for a long time but it now also means “participate in a (video) teleconference”, which is a new meaning directly linked to the zoom software released in 2011. When a word became generic is usually very hard to pinpoint exactly (except for zoom that was 2020)
For heroin: I don’t think there was heroin before the introduction of the heroin brand. Bayer literally invented the substance. (Wikipedia says it was invented 23 years earlier in Britain from morphine, but the inventer didn’t do anything with it so it was reinvented later). It was also not a drug you take to get high, it was an over the counter cough suppressant; no needle or spoon or lighter involved. Wild times for sure…
I’ve never heard Google, Uber or Zoom used unless it meant the specific company. “Google” became a verb, but I’ve never heard of someone saying they googled something on DuckDuckGo, for example.
“Google it” means look it up on the Internet. My kids don’t use Chrome, they use Google (probably call it that because it’s the homepage of Chrome).
I’ve heard people say they’re going to uber home. They sometimes use Lyft.
And I’ve definitely heard people say they were on a zoom call even when it was Microsoft Teams or Google …what is the Google one called again? I don’t remember anymore because people will say Google zoom call!!
Citing a comment I’ve recently seen, it’s amazing how humanity managed to produce only one generation actually competent with computers.
