Generic terms that replaced the brand name

[Acsenray]

@TokyoBayer

That’s still what I call it. Being overseas, I didn’t get the memo.

I had a perfect example in Japanese, but I forgot it. Dammit. If I remember, I’ll post it.

A not so perfect example, but similar was that Japanese often called all foreigners “Americans” in the early 80s and the language foreigners spoke “English” but as the awareness that there are other countries in the world led more people to use “foreigners” and “foreign language.”

Kind of like how in large parts of Asia, the word for “foreigner” is some form of “Firang,” which derives from a term that originally meant “Frankish.”

[CalMeacham]

Adrenaline

It’s the trademark name for epinephrine.
Google

has pretty much taken the “Kleenex” route
Zipper

is also a trade name first used by B.F. Goodrich. It’s properly a “slide fastener”
Here’s a Wikipedia list of tradenames that have gone generic:

List of generic and genericized trademarks

[Thudlow_Boink]

The current thread on “salad cream” reminded me that there isn’t really a good generic term for Miracle Whip. It’s a brand of what they call “salad dressing,” but the term “salad dressing” is much more commonly used for the stuff you pour on salad.

[That_Don_Guy]

The first two that came to mind were aspirin and Xerox (for photocopying).

The third was Q-Tip; in fact, I remember a commercial for a competing brand that had one person about to call it a Q-Tip when another interrupted with, “It’s a cotton swab.”

[CurtC]

@dtilque

I still hear “Astroturf” used, but only in a non-literal meaning.

There was some confusion when my kids were younger, when they mentioned the surface of a playing field was “turf,” and I said that no, it was fake. Apparently “turf” has switched teams.

[TBG]

@StGermain

As a kid we always called it “Saranwrap”. Now it’s just plastic wrap. And boy, does the word “wrap” ever look strange if you look at it enough.

StG

@TokyoBayer

That’s still what I call it. Being overseas, I didn’t get the memo.

That’s all I’ve known it as IRL, but on cooking shows with foreign chefs using it for something, they’ll call it “cling film” which I just find silly.

[california_jobcase]

@excavating_for_a_mind

Like DorkVader I always believed the term Bendix to refer to an automobile starter motor component. Unlike DorkVader it did not refer to the starter gear (that was simply a "“gear”), but the assembly which forced the starter gear away from the electric motor (towards the flywheel) when the starter motor was turning faster than the starter gear (as when starting the engine) and away from the flywheel (towards the starter motor) when the starter gear was turning faster than the starter motor (as when the engine caught). This disengaged the gear from the flywheel once the engine had started and the device that allowed that to happen was (or, still is, AFAIK) “the bendix”.

Yep. That’s a Bendix. Sometimes, one could just replace it instead of the whole starter assembly. BTW, for a bit of historical sylvan advertising, search for Bendix Woods Park on Google maps.