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
But I couldn't take the punishment, and had to settle down
Now I'm playing it real straight, and yes I cut my hair ...
"Expect your brain cells to shrivel up and die suddenly from an overwhelming sense of inferiority" ... Hahahaha. I agree. ;)
justme: Heh.
germ: :)
quirk: Thanks. I was not intending to mimic good ol' Tommy S. Raffles (aka T-Stam), but I suppose that's a flattering comparison...
anon: Ah well, win some lose some.
In the same boat with a lot of your friends
Waitin' for the day your ship'll come in
And the tide's gonna turn and it's all gonna roll your way.
:-)