Sneakers and aspirin: trademarks as everyday words

PalmaAfter last week's newtons and greengage plums, we can continue searching for proper names hidden within everyday vocabulary. Once again, we just need to look around a little. We can put on some sneakers to go for a run or some hiking boots to go on an excursion. If during these activities we catch a bit of a cold and get a headache, we might have to take an aspirin. And, if the headache goes away and we decide to go out for dinner, we might use mascara to dress ourselves up a bit more.

At first glance, all these words seem like common nouns like any other. From the point of view of usage, they are, but they all share the same peculiarity: before becoming words in general vocabulary, they were trademarks.

Designating a category

A trademark serves, precisely, to differentiate a product from those of the competition. A company gives a product a name, registers it, and tries to get consumers to associate it with that product. However, it cannot always control what the language will do with it. If the product becomes very popular, the brand name may die of success: it may begin to be used to refer not only to that specific product, but to all similar products. Thus, a name that was born to identify a brand ends up designating an entire category.

One of the most everyday examples is that of 'sneakers'. The name is related to Wamba, a sports footwear brand that became popular during the 20th century. Over time, the brand name came to designate this type of footwear in a general way. Now we can talk about sneakers without anyone needing to know which brand they are: the word has already made the leap from the shop window to the dictionary.

With 'hiking boots' we have a similar story. The name comes from Chiruca, a mountain footwear brand created at the beginning of the 20th century. The boots became popular among hikers, and today many of us go hiking with a pair of Chirucas without them necessarily being Chiruca brand.

If we move from footwear to the medicine cabinet, the previous process can be found with 'aspirin'. The name was registered by Bayer to designate the well-known medication based on acetylsalicylic acid. Currently, however, 'aspirin' is a common name fully integrated into English and we do not need to see the Bayer logo to understand what it means.

The same transformation explains 'vaseline'. The word comes from Vaseline, the commercial name with which Robert Chesebrough marketed petroleum jelly starting in the 19th century. The brand was so successful that the name ended up identifying the product in general. Thus, when we say that we will put vaseline on our face before going sledding at twenty degrees below zero (an experience, by the way, highly recommended), we do not think of any specific company.

In the world of motoring we can also find another commercial name that has made the leap to the general vocabulary: 'jeep'. The word is associated with the Jeep vehicle brand, but it has also been used as a general designation to refer to certain off-road vehicles.

If we drive the jeep to the Casetes dels Capellans, we might notice that many of the roofs are still made of uralita. Uralita was a brand name that ended up giving its name, in general use, to a type of fiber cement board. Today, however, the word can also lead us to another issue: the risks associated with certain old fiber cement materials that contained asbestos.

In the case of 'mascara', the story takes another turn. The name comes from Rimmel, the brand founded by Eugène Rimmel. The founder's surname became the name of the company and, subsequently, the name that designates eyelash makeup. It is, therefore, a journey in three stages: person, brand, and common word.

The history of trademarks turned into common nouns, however, also shows us a certain tension between two forces. On one hand, companies want their brand name to be recognized and remembered. On the other, they are not necessarily interested in it becoming the generic name for the entire product.

In this sense, one only needs to recall the case of 'donut'. For years, Panrico marketed the well-known ring-shaped cake under the Donuts brand. The trade name became so popular that it ended up being used to designate the product in general, and the brand eventually took action to protect its use.

However, language does not always listen to marketing departments. When a trade name enters into use, speakers adapt it as they wish. They make it plural, assign it a gender, and, if necessary, modify its pronunciation. What had been a name designed for a logo ends up behaving like any other common noun.

Normative consideration

This also explains why not all words of this type have the same normative consideration. 'Post-it', for example, is a common way to refer to small adhesive Post-it notes, 'Tipp-Ex' comes from Tipp-Ex, and 'Kleenex' from Kleenex, but the fact that they are very widespread words does not necessarily imply that they are part of the normative dictionary. Speakers make them their own before the regulations incorporate them (or without them ever doing so).

Proper nouns, therefore, can reach the general lexicon in very different ways: some, because a scientist discovers something; others, because a queen gives her name to a plum, and others, because a company manages to sell a product to millions of people. In all cases, however, the mechanism has one thing in common: the language takes a proper noun and turns it into a word for everyone.