8 ms·

The standard example I've heard is for Trampoline. No one calls them rebound tumblers anymore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trampoline#First_modern_trampoline

The standard example I've heard is for Trampoline. No one calls them rebound tumblers anymore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trampoline#First_modern_trampolines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trampoline#First_modern_trampo... I think this is really just a case of lawyers being super-protective. It also pays well, I'm sure. I think a words like Humvee or even Google have coloquially already lost their meaning--their meaning is polymorphic, it's only a matter of time (100 years is a matter of time) before a better Humvee or Google not released by the original product designer comes along that people will call Humvee or Google anyways.

Swizec 7y ago
Trader Joe’s makes the best kleenex. And my iPhone captures the best kodak moments. I also enjoy facetiming via Slack. And of course googling for music is best done on Spotify.
- oliveshell 7y ago
  Haha, yep. Personally, my friends and I have been skype-ing through Discord a lot recently.
- mnemonicsloth 7y ago
  Hardly anybody remembers nowadays but Elevators and Fridges used to be brand names (of the Otis Elevator company and Frigidaire, respectively). So the endpoint of nobody remembering that your IP is IP has been reached in practice. And more recently there's the PC, which became detached from IBM in record time.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > Elevators and Fridges used to be brand names (of the Otis Elevator company and Frigidaire, respectively) There's no real reason to think "fridge" is shortened from "Frigidaire" as opposed to "refrigerator".
    - Talanes 7y ago
      And plenty of reason to think against. The "dg" sound doesn't come through in "Frigidaire" at all. It does have an actual letter "d" present, but with the "i" in between the sound becomes entirely different. Compare to refrigerator, where the "frige" portion of the word slants easily to rhyme with "ridge."
      - thaumasiotes 7y ago
        I can't go that far. What country are you from? I would have said the second syllable of "refrigerator", and the first syllable of "Frigidaire", both obligatorily rhyme with "ridge". There's no alternative. "Frigidaire" should only really differ from "frigid air" in terms of prosody.
        pmachinery 7y ago
        I think they're assuming Frigidaire is pronounced with a hard G, which is fair enough if you haven't heard it spoken before.
        Talanes 7y ago
        I'm actually assuming it pronounced with a more enunciated J sound than other poster accents seem to. I've always heard frigid with the emphasis on the "J" sound, rather than the softer blended j sound that produces the "dg" blend.
        Talanes 7y ago
        California. I suppose it's just a difference in accent, because I've always heard Frigid pronounced somewhat like fri-jid, with a clear enunciation between the parts, rather than the blended "dg" sound.
    - algorias 7y ago
      Well, in Spanish a refrigerator can be colloquially called a "frigider". I've never seen it in writing though.
baq 7y ago
I’ve always liked escalators and xerox machines.
- SahAssar 7y ago
  On xerox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbqAMEwtOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbqAMEwtOE
- Angostura 7y ago
  Not to mention Heroine.
  - CapitalistCartr 7y ago
    I think you mean Heroin, the opioid drug, rather than heroine, a female hero. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero
MereInterest 7y ago
Wikipedia has a good list of trademarks in various states of becoming generic. It's interesting to read and think how silly it is how many terms still have protection despite not having any mental association with a particular company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericize...
cosmodisk 7y ago
The very first that came to my mind is Jeep. In some countries it literally means SUV nowadays.The term is so ingrained that pretty much everyone says like this: 'He's got a BMW Jeep' or 'Look, that's a nice looking Jeep, surely it's Mercedes!'. The funniest thing is that nobody can ever see a real Jeep anymore,as nobody buys them( talking about Europe here).
- thatguy0900 7y ago
  Interesting, I've never heard jeep used like that in the U.S. Actual jeeps are pretty common here though.
  - malkia 7y ago
    Born in Bulgaria, can confirm - "Джип", or "Джипка" which is really "Jeep" in bulgarian (and probably other slavic languages). Another one is "Yonica" for any synthesizer. Obviously "Scotch" (more for the tape, than drink). But... What I really love is "Pampers" - yes this is the bulgarian word for... "diapers"... and many more...
    - tdsamardzhiev 7y ago
      Don't forget "Xerox"
      - ForHackernews 7y ago
        Amusing and relevant: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/opinion/verbatim-what-is-a-photocopier.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/opinion/verbatim-what-is-...
    - cosmodisk 7y ago
      We've got it more or less the same in Lithuania with a lot of brands. "Pampers" is the default name for nappies. "Scotch" and "Xerox" are popular in Slavic languages,we never picked these up for some reason. Here,in the UK, the more popular ones are: Stanley Knife( any retractable knife) or Hoover( Vacuum cleaner).
_jal 7y ago
Here is Velcro's lawyers telling you to call those other brands 'hook and loop' in a surprisingly straightforward, honest and amusing way. https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY
- jacobush 7y ago
  Straightforward and amusing, yes. Honest? Well, they are paid to be "honest". Excuse while me while I go buy some hook and loop.

Swizec 7y ago

Trader Joe’s makes the best kleenex. And my iPhone captures the best kodak moments. I also enjoy facetiming via Slack. And of course googling for music is best done on Spotify.

oliveshell 7y ago
Haha, yep. Personally, my friends and I have been skype-ing through Discord a lot recently.
mnemonicsloth 7y ago
Hardly anybody remembers nowadays but Elevators and Fridges used to be brand names (of the Otis Elevator company and Frigidaire, respectively). So the endpoint of nobody remembering that your IP is IP has been reached in practice. And more recently there's the PC, which became detached from IBM in record time.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > Elevators and Fridges used to be brand names (of the Otis Elevator company and Frigidaire, respectively) There's no real reason to think "fridge" is shortened from "Frigidaire" as opposed to "refrigerator".
  - Talanes 7y ago
    And plenty of reason to think against. The "dg" sound doesn't come through in "Frigidaire" at all. It does have an actual letter "d" present, but with the "i" in between the sound becomes entirely different. Compare to refrigerator, where the "frige" portion of the word slants easily to rhyme with "ridge."
    - thaumasiotes 7y ago
      I can't go that far. What country are you from? I would have said the second syllable of "refrigerator", and the first syllable of "Frigidaire", both obligatorily rhyme with "ridge". There's no alternative. "Frigidaire" should only really differ from "frigid air" in terms of prosody.
      - pmachinery 7y ago
        I think they're assuming Frigidaire is pronounced with a hard G, which is fair enough if you haven't heard it spoken before.
        Talanes 7y ago
        I'm actually assuming it pronounced with a more enunciated J sound than other poster accents seem to. I've always heard frigid with the emphasis on the "J" sound, rather than the softer blended j sound that produces the "dg" blend.
      - Talanes 7y ago
        California. I suppose it's just a difference in accent, because I've always heard Frigid pronounced somewhat like fri-jid, with a clear enunciation between the parts, rather than the blended "dg" sound.
  - algorias 7y ago
    Well, in Spanish a refrigerator can be colloquially called a "frigider". I've never seen it in writing though.

baq 7y ago

I’ve always liked escalators and xerox machines.

SahAssar 7y ago
On xerox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbqAMEwtOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbqAMEwtOE
Angostura 7y ago
Not to mention Heroine.
- CapitalistCartr 7y ago
  I think you mean Heroin, the opioid drug, rather than heroine, a female hero. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero

MereInterest 7y ago

Wikipedia has a good list of trademarks in various states of becoming generic. It's interesting to read and think how silly it is how many terms still have protection despite not having any mental association with a particular company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericize...

cosmodisk 7y ago

The very first that came to my mind is Jeep. In some countries it literally means SUV nowadays.The term is so ingrained that pretty much everyone says like this: 'He's got a BMW Jeep' or 'Look, that's a nice looking Jeep, surely it's Mercedes!'. The funniest thing is that nobody can ever see a real Jeep anymore,as nobody buys them( talking about Europe here).

thatguy0900 7y ago
Interesting, I've never heard jeep used like that in the U.S. Actual jeeps are pretty common here though.
- malkia 7y ago
  Born in Bulgaria, can confirm - "Джип", or "Джипка" which is really "Jeep" in bulgarian (and probably other slavic languages). Another one is "Yonica" for any synthesizer. Obviously "Scotch" (more for the tape, than drink). But... What I really love is "Pampers" - yes this is the bulgarian word for... "diapers"... and many more...
  - tdsamardzhiev 7y ago
    Don't forget "Xerox"
    - ForHackernews 7y ago
      Amusing and relevant: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/opinion/verbatim-what-is-a-photocopier.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/opinion/verbatim-what-is-...
  - cosmodisk 7y ago
    We've got it more or less the same in Lithuania with a lot of brands. "Pampers" is the default name for nappies. "Scotch" and "Xerox" are popular in Slavic languages,we never picked these up for some reason. Here,in the UK, the more popular ones are: Stanley Knife( any retractable knife) or Hoover( Vacuum cleaner).

_jal 7y ago

Here is Velcro's lawyers telling you to call those other brands 'hook and loop' in a surprisingly straightforward, honest and amusing way. https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY https://youtu.be/rRi8LptvFZY

jacobush 7y ago
Straightforward and amusing, yes. Honest? Well, they are paid to be "honest". Excuse while me while I go buy some hook and loop.