Do you use the genericized brand name or the real word?

[covisio]

Another one most people don't realize is a brand name is Dumpster. Wikipedia says it is a type of mobile garbage bin, or MGB.

Aqualung: song and album by ancient British rock band Jethro Tull
MGB: ancient British sports car
😉

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

A few more (I'm guilty of using) to add to the list that I haven't seen mentioned:

Plexiglas
Kool Aid
Scotch tape
Velcro

 

[Melrose]

I tend to use the brand name.

'Facial Tissue' just sounds too stuffy for me.

 

[weckart]

We tend to keep to the generic name in the UK (with the notable exception of Coke). For example:

• Plasters are plasters - not Band-Aids. Say 'Band-Aid' here and people will immediately think you mean a charity concert in the 1980s
• Tissues are tissues, not usually Kleenex. Likewise, toilet-roll and kitchen-roll - not Andrex and Plenty
• Ibuprofen, not Brufen or something else.
• Paracetamol is paracetamol. If you ask for a specific brand of pain-killer, someone will say 'No, but we've got paracetamol'.
• Sellotape is, however, Sellotape - not sticky-tape.
• Weed trimmers are just 'strimmers'. Lawn mowers are 'mowers'.
• Q-Tips don't exist. Cotton-buds do.
• Photocopiers are photocopiers or just copiers. Xerox as a brand never really got into our national psyche.
• In medicine, professionals and protocols will usually refer to drugs by their generic name rather than any single brand.
• Cash machines are cash machines. Not ATMs or any specific name
• Credit and debit cards are just that - or even just 'card'
• I do use Google as a verb 🙂

- "Soda" is a "fizzy drink" if carbonated or a "soft drink" if not. Soda is mostly something we bake with. As a drink mix, tonic water is much more common than soda water.
- I always say sticky tape, never Sellotape.
- "Strimmer" is a brand name. Trimmer is the generic, I suppose, but most people say strimmer.