[bradley13]

Reminds me of the dark ages, when Xerox was so dominant in the copier market that people used their brand as a noun and a verb. They were threatened with loss of their trademark, because it had become so generic. So they had a massive publicity campaign, asking people to say "copy" instead of "xerox".

Is this a uniquely US thing? In the UK, people always say "hoover" instead of "vacuum".

[wazoox]

In France many trademarks became generic names:

Frigidaire and its abbreviated form frigo is the standard name for a refrigerator (nobody ever says "réfrigérateur").

Kleenex is the standard word meaning "paper handkerchief".

Sopalin is the standard word for "roll of paper towels".

Many automotive parts are called from a brand name too : "Delco" is the only name an igniter is ever called; a flexible black tube is always called a "Durit" whatever its brand.

A modular pre-made, stackable non permanent housing module is an "Algeco".

A bus stop with a roof is called an Abribus.

A supermarket trolley is almost always called a Caddie.

A credit card is universally called a "Carte Bleue" or CB, to the point that people will happily use the nonsensical "CB" acronym for a credit card when speaking English.

Cellophane is called Cellophane. I don't even know of an another word for it :)

[rzzzt]

Escalator was a trademark registered by Otis, the company that made those stairs-go-up devices: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericize...

[tuetuopay]

Don't forget

- bic for a ball pen

- scotch for duct tape

- kalxon for a car honk

- rubalise for the white-and-red tape used in streets

- mobylette for that very specific old style scooter

- pédalo for the floating thingy on the beaches with pedals

As for cellophane I always called it "film plastique" or just "plastique", but this varies a lot from region to region and family to family.

As for Durit, it's actually a bit more interesting as the brand was genericised to "durite". It's so prevalent that we have expressions using it like "péter une durite" as a way to say "going crazy".

[theragra]

In Russian we also do this 1uite a lot. Xerox, google and photoshop are absolutely normal for activities. Also, thermos for vacuum flask. Dandy is a term for NES clones. doshirak or rolton for ramen noodles. Fairy for dish washing liquid.

Sure, it is also klaxon, cellophane and scotch.

Interesting, that champagne is the only case I know that won the fight. My friends often say sparkling wine for generic brands.

[Biganon]

I'm Swiss (French speaking) and I call cellophane "saran", which... is another brand!

[firebat45]

>Cellophane is called Cellophane.

This floor is made of floor

[frozenlettuce]

In Brazil it is still used as a photocopy term (much easier to say "tirar uma xerox" than "tirar uma fotocópia"). Other common terms that we use that came from brands:

shaving razor -> gilete (instead of "lâmina de barbear")

chewing gum -> chiclete (instead of "goma de mascar")

cotton swab -> cotonete (a J&J brand, instead of "haste flexível")

polystyrene -> isopor (a Knauf brand, instead of "esferovite" or "poliestireno expandido")

[lucasoshiro]

This happens a lot here in Brazil. Some brands are so famous that they are synonyms of some products, e. g. Gillette (razor blade), Bom Bril (steel wool), Insulfim (window film) and so on.

Xerox is a curious thing here. It is a so strong synonym to photocopy that almost no one remembers that it is a brand (at least, I don't remember seeing in person any Xerox device). It is so strong that xerox also means the shops were the photocopies are made.

Just place Google Maps over São Paulo, search for "xerox" and see what happens

[bitwize]

I think the "defend it or lose it" nature of trademarks may be a US wrinkle, but I'm not sure.

During the 90s, Nintendo popularized the use of the term "game console" to avoid people's moms calling their competitors "Nintendos". Like Atari before them, their name had become synonymous with video games in general, something they wanted to avoid in order to protect their trademark.

There are references to "consoles" before this happened, dating back to the early 80s, but in everyday language most kids called them "video game systems" or by their brand names (Atari, Nintendo, Sega, etc.).

[Dwedit]

The manuals for the NES, SNES, and N64 never once used the term "Game Console". They exclusively called it the "Control Deck". It's not until the GameCube (2001) that they finally refer to the system as a "Console" in the user manual.

Does anyone know any people who actually called their consoles "Control Decks"?

[bitwize]

Again, Control Deck was how they branded their own products. In the 90s they ran advertisements advising people to refer to their competitors' products as game consoles. I don't remember anyone using the term "Control Deck" to refer to the console.

Nintendo also referred to their cartridges as Game Paks, another term not used outside official Nintendo materials (including Nintendo Power). Everybody just called them cartridges, carts, or just games. It kind of reminds me of how Texas Instruments tried to get "Command Module" over as a term for their TI-99/4(A) cartridges. It didn't go over.

Oddly enough, the official TI-ism for the 99/4A unit itself was "console".

[Dwedit]

The famous 1990 ad saying "There's no such thing as a Nintendo" https://images.nintendolife.com/16326a1099812/no-such-thing-... does not mention "Consoles". Do you know of any 90s Nintendo ads that do use the word Console?

[bitwize]

It was one of those things I could've sworn I saw at the time. It would've been later than that one, and I swear it was Nintendo urging the use of the term console. It could be something else, or I might be misremembering entirely.

[cassianoleal]

In Brazil, "xerox" is synonym with copy and is used in pretty much any context where the latter word makes sense (even if it's not a copy of a document). The verb "xerocar" derives from it, and even appears in dictionaries.

https://www.dicio.com.br/xerocar/ https://dicionario.priberam.org/xerocar

[orthoxerox]

> Is this a uniquely US thing?

No, in Russia people have been xerring documents since photocopiers appeared there.

[culebron21]

You should add that kserokopiya (xerocopy) has been in laws for ages. Like "to have the car insurance original or xerocopy".

[richie_adler]

"Xerring"? Not "xeroxing"?

[antender]

Yep, in Russian xerring (ксерить) sounds way better because "ox" part is rarely used in native words.

[miki123211]

Polish does the same thing, ksero for the machine, kserować for the verb (wać is a somewhat common verb ending for the infinitive).

[richie_adler]

TIL. Thanks!

[notpushkin]

Username checks out, haha.

[grishka]

In Russian it did stick as a word for photocopiers (ксерокс), copies (ксерокопия) and the act of copying (ксерить, ксерокопировать) to this day.

At this point it's more of a legend, but it goes that the word we use for toilet, унитаз, is the brand name of the company that sold toilets in 19th century.

Scotch is one brand of adhesive tape but we call all such tape "скотч".

[kevin_thibedeau]

Other than ксерокс, the other uses can be considered valid applications of the Greek root words.

[EvanAnderson]

Always a good time to share this: https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000002847155/verbat...

[api_or_ipa]

In Canada an in-sink garbage disposal unit is called a Garburator. I recently learned that’s a brand name of said devices. I’ve lived in the states for a while now, but I’m entirely unsure what everyone calls them down here.