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Comment by nicoburns | Hacker News Reader

While not completely alien here in the UK, using brand names for generic concepts is a bit of an Americanism (perhaps because of a cultural tendency to glorify private business?)

"Band-aids" are plasters (short for sticking plasters) here, and "Kleenex" are tissues (even if they're actually kleenex branded).

Having said that, to "google" something or to "photoshop" something are both in common usage here. I suspect the difference has to do with the dominance of those products in their respective categories meaning that chances are you really will be using google or photoshop when you look something up. Although I can't imagine someone here using "google" in the context above to denote a specific, clearly non-google, search tool.

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A widespread example of this phenomenon in Poland is calling a particular form factor of shoes "adidas" (plural: "adidasy"), regardless of the brand or manufacturer. In fact, I can't think of another word to refer to this shoe category. Another one is "kserokopiarka" for "photocopier" (and thus "skserować" for "to photocopy"), which derives from Xerox. And I think using "jeep" (pronounced as in English) for a class of cars is also common. And, of course, we Google stuff on the Internet instead of looking it up.

But other than these, I don't recall any popular examples of brands turning into generic nouns in Polish.

To "xerox" is or was to photocopy, in the US too.

I think it's cultural. We have some brand names where I believe Americans don't, for example. For example, we hoover where Americans vacuum.

Jeep is another example that got plenty of use outside America, only really falling out of use in the last while as casual use of that type of vehicle got replaced by SUVs.

A jeep (in the casual, not the brand sense) is a different thing than a SUV though? When I think of "jeep", I think of a Jeep Wrangler-type vehicle, which is a much different thing than a SUV.

Right, but people who 20 years ago for reasons other than needing the ruggedness would have driven jeeps now mostly drive SUVs.

I'm not saying that people call them SUVs now. I'm saying they buy SUVs instead if they just want a big vehicle to use on road.

At least in my circle no one is asking to pass the 'chocolate hazelnut spread' everyone calls it Nutella, even if it is not the Ferrero brand. Not US

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