From a Grauniad Guardian article on James Dyson , inventor of the dual-cyclone vacuum cleaner: He still has one major ambition. To become a verb, in the same way that Hoover - or, as he puts it, "the alternative" - has done. I suggest to him that people are already using his product but still saying they are "hoovering". He smiles. "I don't think they'll be doing that for long," he says. That struck me as unusual - it's very rare for a firm's leader to say that he wants his product to become a verb. Lots of other companies like TiVo and Google have tried desperately to avoid their name becoming a verb, for fear of the name becoming so generic that the trademark gets diluted. But then, the Languagehat archives seem to show (see comment near the bottom) that Dyson's big on turning his name into a verb. *** Sadly, due to its distinct lack of vowels, the chances of "sng" becoming a verb seem close to zero, regardless of whate...
Comments
I always laugh when I read that. "We know Cookie's fat. But, see! He exercises and eats healthy food! So it's OK! If you have a fat friend, don't treat them differently... as long as they lift weights."
Will they begin rooting the Seven Deadly Sins out of all the Muppets? Gluttony? Check. Anger? Get Oscar into therapy, stat. Zoe has definite Envy issues, and they all seem overly Prideful. Snuffy's definitely got Sloth-like tendencies. Lust? Maria and Luis, get a room! And Greed? The work here needs to be done on the merchandisers who came up with "Chicken Dance Elmo."