Kleenex, Xerox, Hoover and Walkman - Genericide 01

A new product comes into our life, we find it very practical and easy to use that it soon becomes indispensable. Kleenex tissue, Xerox photocopy machine, Hoover vacuum cleaner and Walkman portable music player are some examples of that kind of essential goods.

What is notable about the examples given above is that Kleenex, Xerox, Hoover and Walkman are brand names or trademarks, but the names have become common nouns because of their popular usage to refer to the generic name of the product. One can say 'pass me some Kleenex' to mean 'pass me some tissue paper', and likewise, Xerox means photocopy, Hoover a vacuum cleaner, and Walkman a portable music player. Xerox and Hoover can also be used as verbs.

'Would you go and Xerox these for me?'

'Just leave the broken pieces there, I'll Hoover them right away.'

Walkman, officially, only refers to portable music players made by Sony, but most people use it to refer to portable music players no matter if it is a product of KENWOOD.

These are called genericide, a legal term, which refers to once brand names or trademarks turned into common nouns. They have not lost their validity as proper trademark nouns but they have died as trademarks. They refer to not only their brands but also to same functioning products made by other companies. That's why the term has -cide ending.

It is ironic for the companies - the products have become so well known and popularly used but the brands name or the trademarks have also become too popular that they can refer to other products. The companies try in every way to stop the genericide of their brand names or trademarks.

Becoming too popular can be a double-edged sword.

Verbing new nouns

New inventions and technological developments bring changes in our lifestyle, and thus bring changes in our language too. Here are some noun converted verbs that came into our vocabulary in the 20th century. The number in the parenthesis show the year first seen in usage as a verb

to taxi (1918)
to fax (1948)
to email (1982)

Prior to the usage of these verbs, the products were invented respectively. Modern taxicabs appeared in London in 1897, the first wireless 'radio' facsimile was invented in America in 1924, and emails were used by researchers in laboratories in 1960s.

A new product comes into the lifestyle and if there are no other existing verbs that describe its function, we easily turn the the noun to a verb and make our language more convenient.

Steven Pinker notes in "The Language Instinct"(1994) that one fifth of the verbs in English are derived from nouns.

...easy conversion of nouns to verbs has been part of English grammar for centuries; it is one of the processes that make English English."

He extensively gives examples of verbs which were originally nouns:

head a commitee, scalp the missionary, eye a babe, nose around the office, mouth the lyrics, gum the biscuit, begin teething, tongue each note on the flute, jaw at the referee, neck in the back seat, back a candidate, arm the militia, shoulder the burden, elbow your way in, hand him a toy, finger the culprit, knuckle under, thumb a ride, writs it into the net, belly up to the bar, stomach someone's complaint, rib your drinking buddies, knee the goalie, leg it across town, heel on command, foot the bill, toe the line.......

(I just admire Steven Pinker!)

Language is incessantly changing to reflect the world we live in.

John Herschel and Photography

John Herschel was the only child of William Herschel, the musician astronomer. Like his father, he showed great talent in playing the flute and the violin, but his interest, also like his father was more deeply fixed in astronomy and other areas of science.

First John thought of pursuing the law, but changed his career and devoted his time to astronomy. He became one of the founding members of the Royal Astronomical Society.

What are his contributions language-wise to be taken up as a topic in this philological blog?

He was the first to coin the word 'positive' and 'negative' in the area of photography.

John Herschel worked closely with William Henry Fox-Talbot, a British scientist, inventor and a photography pioneer. Talbot photographed a window at Lacock Abbey, and from the 'negative', he made the first paper 'positive' print of paper. The printing of the negative was made possible for the discovery by John Herschel of using sodium thiosulphate as fixing agent (salt paper).

Seeing the inverted shades of the two products from photography, John named them 'negative' and 'positive'.