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As an American growing up in the late 70s/early 80s, we called all die-cast metal cars “matchbox cars,” even though many (all?) of them were Hot Wheels. I never
by pge 2y ago
As an American growing up in the late 70s/early 80s, we called all die-cast metal cars “matchbox cars,” even though many (all?) of them were Hot Wheels. I never knew there were two competing brands.
- TacticalCoder 2y agoGrowing up in a french speaking country, we'd call all ballpoint pens "bic". Because of this: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bic_(entreprise) https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bic_(entreprise) Up to this day many still say, on a daily basis, say, a "bic bleu" (blue ballpen) or "bic noir" (black ballpen). And virtually everyone french speaking calls a refrigerator (fridge) a "frigo".
- jareklupinski 2y agoit took me a while to realize i've been calling "Adidas-y" by their brand name every time i wanted new shoes in Polish
- MEMORYC_RRUPTED 2y agoGoes even further than purely French speaking, we do the exact same thing in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium!
- tetris11 2y agoI was puzzled when I sneezed in Germany and someone asked if I wanted a Tempo.
- TeMPOraL 2y agoI was shocked when I first started participating in discussions on-line on international boards like this one, some 10+ years ago, and discovered that in America, you sneeze into a Kleenex and cut stuff with X-Acto knives. Then again, we've been calling a certain class of shoes "Adidas" since 1990s, so I shouldn't be surprised by the phenomenon. Not to mention, I don't think anyone in Poland ever used the generic term for a photocopier - we all call it "ksero" machines (from Xerox).
- nine_k 2y agoX-Acto knives are a specific type of knives, builder's or craftsman's, not chef's. Equally, a Bic is not any ball pen at all, but a specific inexpensive, usually faceted kind, AFAICT. Xerox, on the other hand, were the original inventors of the particular photocopy process.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago> X-Acto knives are a specific type of knives, builder's or craftsman's, not chef's. Right, but that's still a quite large and generic product category, produced by many manufacturers and sold by many vendors - while "X-Acto" is a specific US brand of a specific US company. > Equally, a Bic is not any ball pen at all, but a specific inexpensive, usually faceted kind, AFAICT. Yeah, here we didn't call random ballpoint pens "Bic" - the name was used to refer to only to the specific brand of cheap and shitty orange pens that were easy to find anywhere and which no one wanted to use. > Xerox, on the other hand, were the original inventors of the particular photocopy process. Here it's long been a verb. You don't copy documents, you xero documents.
- onemoresoop 2y agoI did grow up on the eastern block (not Poland) and we also called Adidas shoes a type of sneakers that could be a different brand, it was the style that we called them like that. There were a lot more genericized trademarks/eponyms. I can think of two more: one for Blue Jeans which sounded something like "blu Gee" (from blue jeans) and "Jeep" which we called any car that looked like a Jeep but of any brand.
- diego_moita 2y agoIn Brazilian Portuguese: * Cornstarch is called maizena * Adhesive bandages are called bandaid * Instant noodles are called miojo * Yogurt sold in small pots are called danone * Chewing gum is called chiclete (from Chiclets) * Photocopies are xerox * Bouillion is knorr * Glass plates are pyrex * Scooters are lambretta * Soluble cofee is nescafe * Sunglasses are rayban And same goes for teflon, jacuzzi, velcro, tupperware, vaseline, botox, googling, ...etc, etc
- speeder 2y agoI never realized Lambretta was actually a manufacturer until I moved to Europe and saw a store selling Lambrettas. When I was a kid in Brazil everyone called all scooters Lambrettas, even though none of them were Lambrettas. They usually were... Vespas. Now that I know it is actually rivalling companies, I wonder how sad Lambretta and Vespa companies are, with eveyrone calling their Vespa a Lambretta.
- diego_moita 2y agoThe funniest of them all is durex. In Brazil is the name and brand of adhesive tape. In Portugal is the name and brand of condoms.
- pier25 2y agoSame with Mexico and Spain
- lproven 2y agoThe British comedian Mike Harding had a whole comedy routine about this. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-funniest-differences-among-Americans-Australians-and-the-British-creating-hilarious-misunderstandings-in-conversations-among-the-nations/answer/Chris-Pollard-28 https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-funniest-differences-amon... Rubber. Brit: pencil eraser. American: condom. Durex. Brit: condom. Australian: sticky tape.
- postexitus 2y ago
- dghf 2y agoIn the UK, any ballpoint pen is commonly a biro for similar reasons.
- alias_neo 2y agoHoover, Cellotape, Pritt-Stick, Velcro, Coke, iPad, Google, WD40, Fairy liquid... Some were so ubiquitous that I grew up not knowing some of the things we say are actually brands until I was older.
- haunter 2y agoSame in my country with mechanical pencils called rotring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotring
- onemoresoop 2y agoI grew up in the Eastern block and I remember my grandma's set of Rotring mechanical pens (with ink) was promised to me the day I turned 18 but I so wanted that set when I was much younger (in fact at an age I was still playing with Matchbox cars). As I remember they were very finnicky and needed to be declogged quite frequently.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoI was a proud owner of their Rapidiograph technical pens as a teenager. I didn’t realize they made mechanical pencils too.
- krisoft 2y agoIn hungary trash bins are called "kuka" after the brand name of Keller und Knappich Augsburg (the makers of those nice orange robot arms) become genericized.
- ctippett 2y agoIn Australia cooler boxes are known as an Esky (chilly bin in New Zealand), Weber for charcoal barbecues, Texta for felt-tip pens – there's probably a whole lot more I'm not remembering.
- withinboredom 2y agoIn the Netherlands, they call roller blades the extinct brand name: Skeelers.
- redwall_hp 2y agoRollerblade is also a brand. Technically the generic term is "inline skate," but I don't recall it being very widely used.
- ToucanLoucan 2y agoI had this exact experience in the 90s, except I called them all Hot Wheels having no clue Matchbox existed. Shocking how much can change so quickly.
- parpfish 2y agoSame. I also referred to all transforming robot toys as “gobots”
- nemo44x 2y agoGobots were Transformers for poor kids.
- parpfish 2y agoare you telling me that the rich kids never got to experience the excitement of an awesome robot transforming into... a rock? https://gbwiki.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Rock_Lords_(toyline) https://gbwiki.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Rock_Lords_(toyline)
- nemo44x 2y agoGosh I shudder to think what the Eastern Euro kids had to settle for.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bregma 2y agoGrowing up in the 1960s we called them all Dinky Toys. Dinky was the best: they even had die-cast UFO SHADO interceptors and Space:1999 Eagles in the 1970s when I was too old for such things (but still secretly coveted them).
- mjmsmith 2y agoJoe 90 jet car!