Language Please

Ok the other one's still about the details of a trademark.

Still not convinced that calling a lift an "elevator" is because a company had that name, rather than because that's the word that means "lift stuff up". Being generous, a lift company may well have named itself "Elevator", that being a synonym for what it does. I just cannot find anything that backs this up - internet sources (unreliable as they are) do not give me any factual links, no other internet questioning site can give me a reliable source - heck they can't give me any leads at all!

And I don't really know why I'm continuing to post on this subject - I guess the best I could hope for is that people question anything they read on t'internet.. Worst case, i walk away shaking my head.

I moved down to AL from PA about 9 years ago. The slang is very complex down here because of the long history of pervasive illiteracy. So many "words" I had to interpret and learn. Some examples: Osh potatoes=Irish potatoes, How much ya like= How much do you lack, Walmark= Walmart, Chester drawers= Chest of drawers

Ok the other one's still about the details of a trademark.

Still not convinced that calling a lift an "elevator" is because a company had that name, rather than because that's the word that means "lift stuff up". Being generous, a lift company may well have named itself "Elevator", that being a synonym for what it does. I just cannot find anything that backs this up - internet sources (unreliable as they are) do not give me any factual links, no other internet questioning site can give me a reliable source - heck they can't give me any leads at all!

And I don't really know why I'm continuing to post on this subject - I guess the best I could hope for is that people question anything they read on t'internet.. Worst case, i walk away shaking my head.

hi melanie,

this is what i found

http://www.answers.com/topic/elevator

it cites many encycolpedia's as references, but the gist of it suggests that elevator is a general term used to refer to some mechanism that lifts/hoists etc. The term did not derive from an company called Elevator.

I'm Canadian. We don't have language issues....we just say "Eh" at the end of every sentence. :laugh:

:drinker:

You're obviously not a Maritimer.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA....no. :noway: :bigsmile:

What's so funny?

I love language and I read everything I can get my hands on, so I'm pretty familiar with most ways of referring to the different items of everyday use.
However, I do recall being quite confused the first time I heard "galoshes" instead of "rain boots".

Also: just because I love biscuits, here is a photo of what we call biscuits here in the US. (At least here in Texas!)
Aren't they gorgeous...? I could eat them all day with some butter or honey...

So, can one of our American friends tell me what a "biscuit" is? I keep hearing Americans talking about having biscuits with gravy. To us, a biscuit is something you eat with a cup of tea. Like a cookie, but we only call certain biscuits cookies. All cookies are biscuits but not all biscuits are cookies!

Biscuits and gravy is a savory dish... I forget what the brittish name is...but something to do with soda because they are made with baking soda. It is a flour, baking soda, salt, butter (lard or shortening...I like shortening best) cut together and then rolled out and cut into circles. They rise when baked into a flaky thick textured bread. I don't know if you have the same Mc Donald's breakfast menu, but the "sausage egg and cheese breakfast biscuit" is made on the same type of biscuit that we would use for biscuits and gravy. (the gravy part is a sausage gravy...delicious and totally bad for you (high sodium, high fat...high calorie...not so high nutrition.)

Hope this makes sense and helps...

Oh, let's see... there's
soda biscuits
baking powder biscuits
buttermilk bisuits
drop biscuits
choke biscuits
cathead biscuits
and of course...
dumplins which are essentially boiled or steamed biscuits :happy:

And there is a difference between each and every one, albeit subtle.

The first of those links just tells me about trademarks, nothing about the "Elevator" name.

The second I've given 5 minutes to download and so far unsuccessful. Will keep watching.

*sigh*

From page 3 of the first link (and I am having a really difficult time figuring out why you are so against this being true):

Incorrect use of a trademark, even in company correspondence, unwittingly
contributes to its vulnerability. Such failure to use trademarks properly may result
in their becoming generic. Examples of trademarks which became generic are
aspirin, cellophane, kerosene, elevator, and escalator – all of which are now
public property. These once powerful trademarks no longer serve the commercial
needs of their original owners.

And I don't really know why I'm continuing to post on this subject - I guess the best I could hope for is that people question anything they read on t'internet.. Worst case, i walk away shaking my head.

I do question what I read on the Internet. However, the first time I heard this story was from an AP article IN A NEWSPAPER. Not on a random Internet site. Good grief. I've said that about five times already.

My family has always called the TV remote a "clicker". I was shocked when someone was confused about what I was asking for.

My husband says "remote control" when referring to a video game controller. :laugh:

My mom used to say "clicker" too.

funny - when I moved to the US [Boston] and was offered jimmies on my ice cream - I was wordless - where I lived jimmy was a slang word for male parts

And they call us prudes. ;-)

:laugh:

And if someone in Boston said that to someone in Kansas City, we would be clueless as well. Here a jimmy would be something to open a locked door.