4 ms·

Pet peeve: companies that appropriate a dictionary term for their name, e.g. Apple, Google (& Alphabet), Amazon, Oracle. It's really not too hard to create a ne

Pet peeve: companies that appropriate a dictionary term for their name, e.g. Apple, Google (& Alphabet), Amazon, Oracle. It's really not too hard to create a new name for your company, e.g. Microsoft, Facebook and Nvidia.

toast0 3mo ago
Facebook isn't a new name either. Some schools would publish and distribute a book of student photos with names at the beginning of the school year, to help recognize peers; these were called a facebook. Yearbooks are similar, but published at the end of the year and also have a lot of content about what happened that year and organizations and sports.
- em3rgent0rdr 3mo ago
  didn't know that... In that case I should count "Facebook" as another violater.
fhdkweig 3mo ago
A face book is a generic term for a school directory with photographs. That's why Zuckerberg called it The Facebook to differentiate it from all the other face books. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_book
loloquwowndueo 3mo ago
Microsoft doesn’t belong in this list after they trademarked Windows, Word, Works (remember, Microsoft Works is an oxymoron) and others.
- inigyou 3mo ago
  Microsoft Works was such a weird product because it was just half-assed Microsoft Office, but Microsoft Office already existed.
  - loloquwowndueo 3mo ago
    No. Works predated Office by 3 years at least. The first versions of Works ran under ms-dos.
    - SoftTalker 3mo ago
      Several other vendors had office "works" suites too. ClarisWorks, AppleWorks, seems like there were some others for the variety of platforms in the 80s/90s but I can't recall them offhand.
      - loloquwowndueo 3mo ago
        Lotus symphony.
        deleted 3mo ago
        [deleted]
  - throwaway2037 3mo ago
    As I understand, Microsoft Works was primary aimed at retail buyers, but Microsoft Office was aimed at enterprises users. MW was probably half the cost of MO. It is market segmentation, as I see it.
wat10000 3mo ago
I don’t think Google should be on that list. The word is “googol.”
- jader201 3mo ago
  Not to mention, even “googol” is a word almost no one uses (unlike “apple” and “Amazon”).
GaryBluto 3mo ago
If you count Google as an appropriation of Googol, surely Nvidia appropriates Invidia?
- nilamo 3mo ago
  Those are different though? At no point in that sentence was I confused about which word meant what. Unlike Amazonian datacenters deep in the Amazon's Amazon.
- em3rgent0rdr 3mo ago
  Nah. "Google" is pronounced the same as the English word "Googol", so I do consider it appropriating. Meanwhile, Invidia is a latin word, which as a dead language, and it is pronounced differently from "Nvidia", so I don't consider that the same as appropriating a living language word.
  - ButlerianJihad 3mo ago
    "invidia" is an Italian word, so it does survive in living languages. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/invidia https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/invidia "Nvidia" as "officially" pronounced in English is not significantly different from some of those pronunciations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia And the founders seemed to be well aware of the existing usage when they chose the name.
hodgesrm 3mo ago
> Pet peeve: companies that appropriate a dictionary term for their name, e.g. Apple, Google (& Alphabet), Amazon, Oracle. Hard disagree. Consider "Oracle," a truly inspired name for a database company. It's an admirable choice. Here's the computer science definition. > In complexity theory and computability theory, an oracle machine is an abstract machine that can query a black box called an oracle, which is able to give an answer to any instance of a certain problem in a single operation. There's also the wealth of linkages with classical oracles, e.g., Delphi, Cumae (technically a Sibyl), Dodona, etc. [1] Taken together, it's hard to think of a better name. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_machine [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle
manquer 3mo ago
Related - companies named after animals or use animal names as part of their name /logo /mascot should at least contribute a share of their profits to its conservation
ssl-3 3mo ago
nVidia comes from the Latin word invidia, which means things like envy, or jealousy. Microsoft (originally Micro-Soft) is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software. Facebook, as others have mentioned, is a compound word that was borrowed from what literal books of faces [and names] were called. When I think of non-dictionary names, I think of things like Mosptnspg.
- em3rgent0rdr 3mo ago
  portmanteaus are great, actually. Didn't know that about facebook. Non-dictionary names don't need to be as wierd as Mosptnspg. Could simply be Frodel.
throwaway2037 3mo ago
Wildberries

toast0 3mo ago

Facebook isn't a new name either. Some schools would publish and distribute a book of student photos with names at the beginning of the school year, to help recognize peers; these were called a facebook. Yearbooks are similar, but published at the end of the year and also have a lot of content about what happened that year and organizations and sports.

em3rgent0rdr 3mo ago
didn't know that... In that case I should count "Facebook" as another violater.

fhdkweig 3mo ago

A face book is a generic term for a school directory with photographs. That's why Zuckerberg called it The Facebook to differentiate it from all the other face books. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_book

loloquwowndueo 3mo ago

Microsoft doesn’t belong in this list after they trademarked Windows, Word, Works (remember, Microsoft Works is an oxymoron) and others.

inigyou 3mo ago
Microsoft Works was such a weird product because it was just half-assed Microsoft Office, but Microsoft Office already existed.
- loloquwowndueo 3mo ago
  No. Works predated Office by 3 years at least. The first versions of Works ran under ms-dos.
  - SoftTalker 3mo ago
    Several other vendors had office "works" suites too. ClarisWorks, AppleWorks, seems like there were some others for the variety of platforms in the 80s/90s but I can't recall them offhand.
    - loloquwowndueo 3mo ago
      Lotus symphony.
      - deleted 3mo ago
        [deleted]
- throwaway2037 3mo ago
  As I understand, Microsoft Works was primary aimed at retail buyers, but Microsoft Office was aimed at enterprises users. MW was probably half the cost of MO. It is market segmentation, as I see it.

wat10000 3mo ago

I don’t think Google should be on that list. The word is “googol.”

jader201 3mo ago
Not to mention, even “googol” is a word almost no one uses (unlike “apple” and “Amazon”).

GaryBluto 3mo ago

If you count Google as an appropriation of Googol, surely Nvidia appropriates Invidia?

nilamo 3mo ago
Those are different though? At no point in that sentence was I confused about which word meant what. Unlike Amazonian datacenters deep in the Amazon's Amazon.
em3rgent0rdr 3mo ago
Nah. "Google" is pronounced the same as the English word "Googol", so I do consider it appropriating. Meanwhile, Invidia is a latin word, which as a dead language, and it is pronounced differently from "Nvidia", so I don't consider that the same as appropriating a living language word.
- ButlerianJihad 3mo ago
  "invidia" is an Italian word, so it does survive in living languages. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/invidia https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/invidia "Nvidia" as "officially" pronounced in English is not significantly different from some of those pronunciations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia And the founders seemed to be well aware of the existing usage when they chose the name.

hodgesrm 3mo ago

> Pet peeve: companies that appropriate a dictionary term for their name, e.g. Apple, Google (& Alphabet), Amazon, Oracle. Hard disagree. Consider "Oracle," a truly inspired name for a database company. It's an admirable choice. Here's the computer science definition. > In complexity theory and computability theory, an oracle machine is an abstract machine that can query a black box called an oracle, which is able to give an answer to any instance of a certain problem in a single operation. There's also the wealth of linkages with classical oracles, e.g., Delphi, Cumae (technically a Sibyl), Dodona, etc. [1] Taken together, it's hard to think of a better name. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_machine [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle

manquer 3mo ago

Related - companies named after animals or use animal names as part of their name /logo /mascot should at least contribute a share of their profits to its conservation

ssl-3 3mo ago

nVidia comes from the Latin word invidia, which means things like envy, or jealousy. Microsoft (originally Micro-Soft) is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software. Facebook, as others have mentioned, is a compound word that was borrowed from what literal books of faces [and names] were called. When I think of non-dictionary names, I think of things like Mosptnspg.

em3rgent0rdr 3mo ago
portmanteaus are great, actually. Didn't know that about facebook. Non-dictionary names don't need to be as wierd as Mosptnspg. Could simply be Frodel.

throwaway2037 3mo ago

Wildberries