Is this a uniquely US thing? In the UK, people always say "hoover" instead of "vacuum".
Frigidaire and its abbreviated form frigo is the standard name for a refrigerator (nobody ever says "réfrigérateur").
Kleenex is the standard word meaning "paper handkerchief".
Sopalin is the standard word for "roll of paper towels".
Many automotive parts are called from a brand name too : "Delco" is the only name an igniter is ever called; a flexible black tube is always called a "Durit" whatever its brand.
A modular pre-made, stackable non permanent housing module is an "Algeco".
A bus stop with a roof is called an Abribus.
A supermarket trolley is almost always called a Caddie.
A credit card is universally called a "Carte Bleue" or CB, to the point that people will happily use the nonsensical "CB" acronym for a credit card when speaking English.
Cellophane is called Cellophane. I don't even know of an another word for it :)
- bic for a ball pen
- scotch for duct tape
- kalxon for a car honk
- rubalise for the white-and-red tape used in streets
- mobylette for that very specific old style scooter
- pédalo for the floating thingy on the beaches with pedals
As for cellophane I always called it "film plastique" or just "plastique", but this varies a lot from region to region and family to family.
As for Durit, it's actually a bit more interesting as the brand was genericised to "durite". It's so prevalent that we have expressions using it like "péter une durite" as a way to say "going crazy".
Sure, it is also klaxon, cellophane and scotch.
Interesting, that champagne is the only case I know that won the fight. My friends often say sparkling wine for generic brands.
This floor is made of floor
shaving razor -> gilete (instead of "lâmina de barbear")
chewing gum -> chiclete (instead of "goma de mascar")
cotton swab -> cotonete (a J&J brand, instead of "haste flexível")
polystyrene -> isopor (a Knauf brand, instead of "esferovite" or "poliestireno expandido")
Xerox is a curious thing here. It is a so strong synonym to photocopy that almost no one remembers that it is a brand (at least, I don't remember seeing in person any Xerox device). It is so strong that xerox also means the shops were the photocopies are made.
Just place Google Maps over São Paulo, search for "xerox" and see what happens
During the 90s, Nintendo popularized the use of the term "game console" to avoid people's moms calling their competitors "Nintendos". Like Atari before them, their name had become synonymous with video games in general, something they wanted to avoid in order to protect their trademark.
There are references to "consoles" before this happened, dating back to the early 80s, but in everyday language most kids called them "video game systems" or by their brand names (Atari, Nintendo, Sega, etc.).
Does anyone know any people who actually called their consoles "Control Decks"?
Nintendo also referred to their cartridges as Game Paks, another term not used outside official Nintendo materials (including Nintendo Power). Everybody just called them cartridges, carts, or just games. It kind of reminds me of how Texas Instruments tried to get "Command Module" over as a term for their TI-99/4(A) cartridges. It didn't go over.
Oddly enough, the official TI-ism for the 99/4A unit itself was "console".
https://www.dicio.com.br/xerocar/ https://dicionario.priberam.org/xerocar
No, in Russia people have been xerring documents since photocopiers appeared there.
At this point it's more of a legend, but it goes that the word we use for toilet, унитаз, is the brand name of the company that sold toilets in 19th century.
Scotch is one brand of adhesive tape but we call all such tape "скотч".