I thought there was a specific word for the name of something being the action it performs. I might be mistaken but isn’t there a word that encompasses this type of word? Such as Xeroxing or Googling or Tivo? Thanks.
Generic trademark, perhaps?
I don’t know if it’s what you were thinking of, but anthimeria certainly fits the bill.
That’s not what the OP is talking about, but rather the use of a name as a verb.
Verbing. As in, “You can verb any noun”.
Tautology?
Given that a tautology is saying the same thing twice in different words, it’s pretty much impossible for a single word to be a tautology.
I was also thinking along the lines of “verbing a noun.” Googling (heh) doesn’t turn up a clear answer except maybe you’re thinking about the term for coining new words in general, “neologism?”
The verb produced is considered denominal, and the process would seem to be denominalization.
On a slightly related note, Google has been used in a further transformation.
Well, that addresses the “verbing” portion of the issue. We still don’t have a word specific to the intersection between denomialization and genericide.
I googled (or Googled?) “verbing weirds language,” which is Calvin and Hobbes’ version of this, and it brought me to conversion (word_formation). A little more broad than the OP wants though, I suspect.
When any verb in general is turned into the corresponding noun by adding the “-ing” suffix, it’s a gerund, isn’t it?
I ain’t no formal grammarologist, but I think that gerunds are some more precise use of adding “-ing” to a noun.
ETA: I could have just looked it up. Sometimes adding “-ing” to a noun makes it a participle.
Interesting question. Certainly it would almost always be a gerund. But it could conceivably be a participle used substantively. Trouble is it is hard to distinguish it. Consider: Swimming is forbidden. Without a doubt “swimming” is a gerund there. But now look at the phrase:swimming lessons. There are three possibilities. It might be a gerund used attributively; it might be a participle used as a simple adjective; it might be a participle used as a substantive, but used attributively. I reject the second on prosodic grounds. Normally in an adjective noun phrase the noun bears the stronger stress (unless you are making a contrast). So it is between the first and third since “swimming” will be stressed. Which one? How can you tell? I just feel that the word is not a gerund that it has a different feel than in the first example. Finally, does it matter? Not in the least.
Should be “when I searched the web using the Google® brand search engine.”