Verb to describe when an acronym becomes a word in its own right? (1 Viewer)

[Joseph DeMartino]

Nah, "pop" vs. "soda" really isn't a north/south thing. (The south tends toward using "coke" generically for all carbonated, soda-pop beverages, so you find people asking you what flavor of coke you want - by which they mean cola, orange, lemon-lime... Until recently - with the addition of cherry and vanilla flavorings to canned and bottled Coke - "what flavor coke do you want?" would have been a meaningless question in 3/4 of the country.)

Here's how it all breaks down

Regards,

Joe

 

[andrew markworthy]

Heroin was originally marketed as a less addictive alternative to morphine, believe it or not. It was also used (in more dilute form) in cough mixtures (opiates in v. small quantities are pretty good at suppressing tickly coughs, hence why codeine cough syrup is still available). E.g. there's an infamous Victorian advert peddling heroin cough mixture - for children.

Back on thread (or rather, the way the thread has evolved) - the whole trademark issue is a sticky one, particularly for authors. I'm a member of the Brit Society of Authors and a year or so ago we got a lengthy article in the society magazine about correct use of brand names in writing. In theory a writer can be sued under UK law (I don't know about US law) for appropriating a brand name to refer to all examples of the product in question.

A couple more examples of brand names that are used generically, at least in the UK:

biro = ballpoint pen
hoover = vacuum cleaner

Also, no-one so far has mentioned medical acronyms used facetiously by doctors to describe patients they don't like. Written on patient notes they just look like medical shorthand, but are actually insults:

FUR - found under rock
DTS - danger to shipping [for someone who is very fat]
NFFOD - normal for Forest of Dean [i.e. stupid - also serious libel on the inhabitants of a v. pleasant part of England]

 

[MarkHastings]

Yeah, it's a "1970's" vs. "Today" kind of thing. Seriously, I haven't heard the term "pop" used since I was a kid, but according to the link (above), CT is a "soda" state.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Boy did they get that one wrong. Isn't heroin the most addictive drug out there?

 

[John Spencer]

That depends. When was the last time you did a ted?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I'm pretty sure that "honor" goes to crack. From what I've read.

Joe

 

[Mikael Soderholm]

Oh dear, if that's concise, I wonder what they had in their verbose dictionary

 

[Paul McElligott]

Ironically, I think the fact that Xerox no longer completely dominates the photo copier market like they used to and companies like Canon and Ricoh have increased their market share has helped Xerox with the trademark battle. The word "Xerox" is no longer completely synonomous with copying.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

It was the "making copies" guy from SNL that got me to stop calling copying, "xeroxing."

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Funny, that's the same guy who got me to stop watching SNL.

Joe

 

[Henry Gale]

Not always.

I tried smack years ago, didn't like it....but you'd be wise not to get between me and my RC. That's soda BTW.

 

[Mike Frezon]