names

Years ago, one time on a trip to London, I went alone to a play - don't remember what play but it was a comedy. The whole audience burst into laughter at one character's line about using a Pifco.  I didn't know what that was. I asked my neighbouring seat-mate, a stranger to me, what a Pifco was.  She leaned over, very close, and whispered, very discreetly,  "It's a small electrical appliance,"  The brand name stood for the thing. That doesn't happen often, not to stick, and Brits do it more often.  

They say 'corn flakes' for all cereal.  They say 'Hoover" for vacuuming and also for devouring food ("I hoovered it up").  I guess the closest to that usage is in Newfoundland.  When a Newfoundlander says fish, he means cod.  All other fish are identified by their names.

Some brand names make it into a generic identity but it doesn't always last.  Xerox used to mean photo-copy, no matter what brand was used.  Not any more.  Thermos is still, I think, in wide general use but vacuum flask or bottle is competing with it.  Kleenex used to be king but there are lots of other brands, including generic ones, that are identified as facial tissues, including those cute little purse packs labelled SNIFF or with Xmas greetings on them. (Does anyone, except perhaps the Queen, remember handkerchiefs?)  Oh, and then there are Post-It Notes and Scotch tape, both from the same company, and they have stuck, if  you'll pardon the expression. I'm wondering if the indefatigable rabbit is beating out other batteries. Product recognition must cost a fortune.  

Is Coke synonymous with a soft drink, a thirst quencher, a happiness symbol? Okay, what about water?  Are we going to start identifying water with the safest, cleanest potable liquid we can find? buy?  Oh my.

more about words

Yesterday I was going to invite you to write me a fulsome reply and wait to see who knew that was the wrong word, bur that would be sneaky.  A lot of people are using it incorrectly now, thinking they are saying large, thorough, abundant.  Not. It's actually not very nice, kind of overdone, even tasteless. It's on the cusp. Some consider fulsome praise a compliment; others would be offended. I once wrote a manufacturer, of sponges as I recall, offering me fulsome information if I wrote them. So I wrote questioning their use of the word.  They just sent me a bunch of sponges. Copy writers are never wrong.  I fired a copy editor when she tried to correct me with incorrect words and I took my byline off an article for a well-known magazine because they put bad grammar into my copy. I make enough mistakes of my own without letting anyone else put words in my mouth - on my paper - online.

Oh, my, it's hard keeping up with the medium (meansmethodwayformagencyavenuechannelvehicleorganinstrument, mechanism)! Have you noticed how your vocabulary has grown in the last ten years? And not just the words. How about the acronyms and initials?  Ten years ago I knew that DOA meant dead On Arrival but I didn't know that GSR is Gun Shot Residue or BFT is Blunt Force Trauma.

Hey, I grew up with FHB  - Family Hold Back - if there wasn't enough food for an unexpected guest.  BO was Body Odour in the ad for Lifebuoy soap. SWAK was Sealed With  Kiss on letters to a soldier serving overseas. Much later, taking instructions for reviving a heart attack victim with CPR - CardioPulmonary Resuscitation -  one was supposed to KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid. ( It didn't work with my husband, though. Sorry.)