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That was a good almost 100 year run, yo-yo.
I find it interesting how all but a few are two syllables. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Missing Hoover
I dunno, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t call it a vacuum. I know people who own Hoover’s and they still call it their vacuum.
That’s UK English vs. American English. I think American English might genericise (if that’s a word) trademarks more often than UK English, but hoover is one that the UK has that America doesn’t.
I think another one is referring to cream cheese as Philadelphia.
I’m American though so any Brit’s out there please correct me if I’m wrong.
Funny enough Philadelphia can not be called a cream cheese in the EU
Only in UK.
It’s probably American biased. In the US it’s commonly called a ‘vacuum’ or ‘vacuum cleaner.’ ‘Hoover’ is not used much in US.
The Dumpster Brothers? Their last fucking name was Dumpster? Wild that that was just a common last name with no connection to trash for centuries
Look again, it actually says Dempster
On cold nights, we’d gather together around the Dempster fire and discuss how bad things were, we’d share drinks and bond as the we burned the garbage to stay warm on those cold nights. No one could turn away for those Dempster fires as they were amazing to watch. Yep Everyone loved watching those Dempster fires
Both words are used, so I understand the confusion; also, sprinkled with a little misspelling:
Dumpster: The Dempster Brorthers, Inc.
EDIT: Just read the Dumpster Wikipedia page. The Dempster Brothers’ had a truck called The Dempster Dumpmaster 😂
Ormagord, Sorper Morio Brorthers
Look again, it actually says Trumpster
Look again, it actually says Drumpster
Drumphster
It’s kind of indicative that the courts have bent to corporations on not generciding names for nearly 60 years. How long have dumpsters been so ubiquitous that no one even knew it was a brand? Very Berenstain Bears situation.
I agree. If dump was a word before (I’ll have to check), then dumpster is a simple modification.
Wait until you learn about Thomas Crapper, who made major improvements to the modern toilet.
And his name wasn’t the origin of the word crap. It was just destiny!
Nominative determinism!
J’en ai compté 29 qui marchent aussi en français.
Zoom was actually a word before 2011
Not to mention many of these are literally still brand names and have not in fact been ruled generic.
Oh I see now they’ve made the generic ones dark grey.
And uber was before 2009.
The TV series was in 1972
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_(1972_TV_series)?wprov=sfla1
Not with that meaning but yes, poor terminology on the visual since it implies it was not.
I suppose the title “brand names that became common words” implies that it was a brandname before being a common word, otherwise the reader should pretty much never assume that.
Trademarks are context sensitive, and zoom was not used as a term for video calls before that. It is interesting that that’s the only one on the list that isn’t also a made up word
Isn’t google a real thing in numbers.
No gogol is a number
That’s googol.
Über is also not made up 👀
True, but it has gained additional meaning and uses. Before 2011, you could not “join a zoom”, for example.
I wish this graphic had the old name as well.
‘Real estate agent’
I hope they lose Realtor
I hope the world loses realtors
That’s the only that surprised me, and it’s still protected? How does that one work?
The National Association of Realtors is pretty consistent at insisting anyone not associated with them is a real estate agent not a Realtor.
Really … that is interesting. I don’t know anyone not in the business that 1) knows this and 2) cares.
They have to protect their image!
Wait, are these the dates when the brand that eventually was deemed a “common word” were first trade marked? I was reading this as the years they were deemed common words.
Cause 2011 is WAYYYY too early for zoom to be common. If anything, that would’ve been Skype on 2011. Similar thing for Tupperware and zipper.
Also, wtf was heroin’s common name before being branded heroin? Lol, also, I can’t help but imagine heroin got its name as some kind of “there’s a hero in every needle” marketing campaign.
It’s from the German word “heroisch”, which is basically “heroic”. They used it being a homonym for “heroine” to use women heroes or Valkyrie in marketing for a bit, because it’ll save you from that nasty cough.
It didn’t really go by anything before, since it’s not something super easy to make, and so the first people to really make a lot of it was Bayer, and they named it heroin.
Before heroin people had morphine, and heroin had been made as “diamorphine”, but it just wasn’t really a thing.
In the 80’s there was a brand of cough suppressant pills with codeine (prescription only) called Tussigon, as codeine is a an anti-tussive (anti-cough).
They’re still all over the place. It’s the main ingredient of lean.
year the brand name was first introduced.
It says so in the legend. Zoom has been a word for a long time but it now also means “participate in a (video) teleconference”, which is a new meaning directly linked to the zoom software released in 2011. When a word became generic is usually very hard to pinpoint exactly (except for zoom that was 2020)
For heroin: I don’t think there was heroin before the introduction of the heroin brand. Bayer literally invented the substance. (Wikipedia says it was invented 23 years earlier in Britain from morphine, but the inventer didn’t do anything with it so it was reinvented later). It was also not a drug you take to get high, it was an over the counter cough suppressant; no needle or spoon or lighter involved. Wild times for sure…
Derp, thanks for pointing out the legend. Totally missed it as I gave the thing a once over.
But also, obviously this means heroin’s name must come from “a hero in every pill”
It was diacetyl morphine before Bayer marketed it. Fun fact; the acetyl groups get cleaved before it binds to a receptor so it’s just plain old morphine again.
In the UK: Hoover is what everyone called their vacuum cleaner. Can’t stop for tea, I have the hoovering to do at home
Have you ever hoovered schneef?
Nope, had to wet-vac it up cuz people spilled their Tim’s on it
This is fucking hook and loop.
Something I find interesting, lino was replaced by vinyl which was worse and plasticy but cheaper and the name carried over.
Most people when they think of floor lino thinka actually of vinyl rather than the actual original!
Vinyl is horrible, but I really like LVP. I guess the solution was more vinyl.
Where is hoover
Congressional cemetery
Chapstick goes all the way back to the 1880’s? Holy shit!
Realtor?
That’s weirder than Duncan’s claim on Yo-Yo getting rejected on a technicality, ninety-nine years late.
