PERNICKETY

[LukeJavan8]

You do have a "strong" point there. Of course without this
site, I would never have known that the word without
the "s" was even a word. We never hear it here.
But then even with the "s" it is not used much (nitpick
being more in usage).

[skinem]

I think I hear "picky" more than "nit-picky"...

[LukeJavan8]

Yeah, me too, probably. I know I never hear pernickity!
Only with the "s". But it is so infrequent any more as to
not be much of a comment on anything.

[beck123]

So, Skinem, you prefer "duck tape," which was the original name and pronunciation for the product we now call "duct tape," thanks to improper usage? That transformation only took a decade or two!

[beck123]

Completely off the subject comes a flash from Florida to all of you anywhere north of the Gulf of Mexico:

Take heart! The robins are headed north. A great flock came through my property last weekend, and there must be 100 here now, loafing on the ground in the rain and eating all my worms. Spring is on the way!

[LukeJavan8]

O thanks be to the gods!
Shoo them away, make them fly north. Quick!

[skinem]

So, Skinem, you prefer "duck tape," which was the original name and pronunciation for the product we now call "duct tape," thanks to improper usage? That transformation only took a decade or two!

Sure, I'm old enough I pre-date the move to "duct" tape...only knew it as duck tape, and only knew if for it's original purpose...to tape up the lids of ammunition boxes to keep the moisture out...thus the "duck" part of the word. But, I'm not going to get too worked up over marketing terms and their use or mis-use. Kinda like I'm not going to get too worried if someone pronounces "Haagen-Daas" with or without the umlauts. It's a fictitious made up word.

I'm also not going to get too worked up over referring to tissues as Kleenex, vacuums as Hoovers or other artificialities of marketing and consumerism.

[beck123]

I'm with you on that. Those things don't work me up at all. My grandmother called her GE appliance a "frigidaire" until the day she died. She even called it an ice box now and then.

[LukeJavan8]

We had an ice box in our house when I was a boy, and
I do remember it. See one every so often in flea markets
and how they've been 're-made' into other types of
cabinets for other purposes.

I too, don't get worked up over "fridges", 'hoovers',
kleenex, or even Velcro, and I'll be codswalloped if I knew
the 'real' name for velcro, as that is the 'brand', but surely
never hear the term in usage as anything but.

[Slava]

I too, don't get worked up over "fridges", 'hoovers', kleenex, or even Velcro, and I'll be codswalloped if I knew the 'real' name for velcro, as that is the 'brand', but surely never hear the term in usage as anything but.

Here we have two items of note. One, the way words change meaning and usage. The other, how brand names become "genericized."

http://www.alphadictionary.com/goodword/word/codswallop
Codswallop is a noun, so how can one be codswalloped? However, when we read this, it seems to make sense, so if people pick it up and start using it, it will become a valid meaning.

Velcro is the brand name for hook and loop fasteners, but only just barely hanging in there. Other companies cannot use the word, but the general population calls all such fasteners "Velcro."

Here's the Wikipedia entry, in case anyone's interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velcro

[LukeJavan8]

Hook and loop fasteners, YES, that's it! thank you!

And along that line, "just barely making it" is true.
I wonder if anyone would know what I was talking
about should I use the term, other than on this
site, of course.

[LukeJavan8]

Interestingly the Wiki article on "hook and loop"
fasteners mentions that they are made often of
Teflon, and their own site (Wiki) has "Teflon"
as a registered trade name as well. (Brand name).

[beck123]

Codswallop is a noun, so how can one be codswalloped?

I imagine the same way an item may be boxed or a nail hammered. Speakers take great liberties with these things.

[LukeJavan8]

So, Skinem, you prefer "duck tape," which was the original name and pronunciation for the product we now call "duct tape," thanks to improper usage? That transformation only took a decade or two!

In a hardware store when I first saw the word Duck Tape.
I thought it was some sort of joke, I had always heard
and used "duct". Curious now to find out that Duck
is actually older.

[beck123]

I don't know where "duck" in the military sense (and not meaning "to assume a prone position with haste") originated. "Waterproofed" seems to make sense - as one might call canvas - but the green (olive drab) color of everything infantry rubbed off on the word. For something to be "duck" it had to be military green as I recall. I think duck tape was named unofficially by G.I.s for its color, according to an article I read a while back in Invention and Technology.