Brand names and trademarks that are often used as generic terms

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I've heard people at Welcome Break say on the phone "Yes, I'm just at the Moto."

 

[prod_pep]

Correction fluid again, I've actually heard it referred to as 'Liquid Paper', another brand perhaps less well-known here than Tipp-Ex.

Coke or Coca-Cola to refer to any cola drink, including those wretched supermarket own-brand substitutes.

 

[pdeaves]

Correction fluid again, I've actually heard it referred to as 'Liquid Paper', another brand perhaps less well-known here than Tipp-Ex.

Well I'll be. I thought liquid paper was a general term to avoid using the brand name (and a bit more delicate than 'paint'!).

 

[contrex]

Public address systems are sometimes referred to as Tannoys, but in actuality Tannoy is a manufacturer of PA systems as well as loudspeakers.

When I was 15, a pal at school's parents bought the house that Guy Fountain, founder of Tannoy, lived in. It included a listening room with all of Fountain's top-of-the-range hi-fi, including two massive Tannoy speaker systems in corners. We had fun playing our Cream, John Mayall, and Yardbirds LPs. It sounded much better than any equipment we had ever used before.

 

[GusB]

Well I'll be. I thought liquid paper was a general term to avoid using the brand name (and a bit more delicate than 'paint'!).

The first time I ever saw correction fluid it was branded as Liquid Paper, but Tipp-Ex was much more common when I was at school.

 

[contrex]

Is that brand name used all that often, generically?

'Dexion' is what I, and in my experience, lots of others tend to call any steel shelving system.

 

[PTR 444]

Uber (app-based taxi service)
Deliveroo (app-based food delivery)
Pringles (curved potato snacks)
Shreddies (malted wheat cereal)
Weetabix (wheat biscuits)
Twix (layered caramel chocolate biscuit)
Philadelphia (cream cheese)
Coke (cola-based drink)

 

[johnnychips]

If somebody asked me for a ‘bic’, I would hand them a cheap disposable razor, rather than a ball-point pen. I use ‘biro’; though these days with the demise of real nib pens, probably just ‘pen’.

 

[swt_passenger]

If somebody asked me for a ‘bic’, I would hand them a cheap disposable razor, rather than a ball-point pen. I use ‘biro’; though these days with the demise of real nib pens, probably just ‘pen’.

I also only ever remember calling them “biros”, Bic (shortened from Mr Bich) was the manufacturer of a device invented by Mr Biro. If you bought one, it was labelled a Bic Crystal pen.

 

[OhNoAPacer]

Exppendorf and Gilson get used a lot instead if the generic term air displacement pipette. Eppendorf usually for fixed volume pipettes and Gilson for variable volume pipettes.

 

[Gloster]

If somebody asked me for a ‘bic’, I would hand them a cheap disposable razor, rather than a ball-point pen. I use ‘biro’; though these days with the demise of real nib pens, probably just ‘pen’.

I might let them borrow a pen. I don’t go round with razors in my pockets: this isn’t 1930s Glasgow.