Inspired by this thread - as I was reading through it an odd thought struck me. Very often a trade name is so well known that that it becomes used as the generic name - examples that spring to mind are Kleenex to mean tissue, Hoover to mean vacuum cleaner, Scotch or Sellotape (UK) to mean clear adhesive tape, and so on.
However, you do get odd examples of a trade name which is used as a generic term for years subsequently dropping out of use, and being replaced by a true generic term. Forty years ago Durex (the UK equivalent of US Trojan, I believe) was almost always used as the generic term. These days, the word used is almost universally condom. Back in the day, “condom” was such an unusual word that I remember, in the novel His Lordship by Leslie Thomas*, the protagonist had to look it up in a dictionary - and it was from this novel that I learned the word.
I suspect this particular example may have happened because of public information campaigns which started almost 40 years ago. But there are other examples - in the UK Band-Aid (the brand) was the generally used word for a sticky medical dressing at one time, now replaced by the generic “plaster”. Maybe, in this case, because of the declining commercial success of the brand.
My mother uses “Oleo” for margarine, and “Bab-O” for scouring powder, even though none of the stores in my town have carried either brand in at least 40 years. Older people seem to know instantly what she is talking about. Younger people have to translate.
I remember “Xerox” being used in the 80s as both a verb and a noun for photocopying (now usually just called copying). Incidentally, I’ve never heard “plaster” used for a self-adhesive bandage; maybe that’s a UK thing only? Everyone I know still calls them band-aids.
Later than that, definitely into the 90s, at least. But, yeah, that’s a good example. Most of my peers would understand what I mean when I say “Can you Xerox this for me”? But I don’t think I would use that construction any more. Not sure when it transitioned out of popular usage, but I’m guessing mid-to-late 90s? But, yes, “to Xerox” something or “a Xerox” was the usual terms for “to photocopy” or “a photocopy” back in that time, regardless of the brand of photocopy machine it was done on, but it doesn’t seem to be a much-used term anymore.
I feel like there’s a bunch of these on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t summon them up.
Maybe “Astroturf”? That seemed to be the word for any type of artificial turf back in the day (80s-ish), but I can’t remember the last time I heard that term.
When I was a kid, we used mixmaster for a mixer. I think it has largely disappeared, maybe because the generic is shorter. Some people then used fridgidaire for what we now call a fridge. I think I use xerox and copy interchangeably.
I think that’s actually an example of a brand name being replaced by a generic term. I haven’t heard anyone refer to a vacuum cleaner as “Hoover” in many years.
Which is the subject of this thread, no? As I understand it, we’re not looking for words like “aspirin” which were trademarked and currently being used as generics, but rather brand names like “hoover” that were once used as generics, but now replaced by true generic terms, i.e. “vacuum cleaner” in this case.
The thing I recall with Hoover/vacuum cleaners was not so much that the generic vac was called a hoover, it was that when someone was going to clean their floor, they would say: “I’m going to hoover the floor now, get outside and play” etc.
So it was hoover as a verb, not just another name for any vacuum cleaner.
Is or was this a regionalism or something from very long ago? I’ve never heard Bendix applied to washing machines.
Bendix is, and always has been the gear on the starter motor that engages the main engine of your car to start it running, whether said gear was actually manufactured by Bendix or some other company. Shoot, I know I used to know the proper name for it but heck if I do now, it’s just the bendix gear.
For me a whirlpool always meant a dishwasher regardless of manufacturer, but not anymore
Nope, they’re called that in South Africa, too. It’s short for “sticking plaster”, and the biggest brand here is Elastoplast (same as in the UK, I believe), not Band-Aid, but that’s not really been genericised here.
Heroin (yes, it’s originally a trade name registered to Bayer, same as aspirin) is more likely to be known by one of its street names (smack, horse, etc.) by aficionados. I hear. Or by its chemical name in actual medical contexts.
I still hear “Astroturf” used, but only in a non-literal meaning. That is, it means a ostensible grass-roots organization that’s actually funded and run by a corporation or other non-locals.
As far as “hoover” to mean vacuum, either as a noun or verb, it still seems to be used that way in Britain and Ireland. At least that’s my impression from the other side fo the pond.
I was wondering about thatone , too, but even moreso. I haven’t even heard of Bendix applied to anything. First time I’ve heard the word, to my knowledge. Perhaps it was regional, or perhaps before my time (I’m in my early-mid-40s.) But even the old timers around here growing up just called it a washing machine.