Later, this word called Xerox began appearing on stores that ran the business of getting you photocopies of documents. When I saw that word for the first time it looked very mysterious, until i figured out that it is the name of the American company, a pioneer in the photocopying technology.
Today name of that company has become so synonymous with the process, that everyone says Xeroxing rather than photocopying. (Remember, Googling is not the first such usage.) In India, you see the word Xerox in every city and town, especially in places near educational institutions, and government and private offices.
Though soft copies and easy options to scan are available by way of apps on mobile phones, one needs to take Xerox of documents for official purposes. So, that industry is hardly threatened.
I don’t think there is any company whose name is so widely displayed in so many cities and towns, at least in India. I am not sure how popular Xerox is in other countries.
(This post is a part of the "Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2018.")
The word Xerox has replaced the word for photocopying all over the word. Only a few companies can boast that. Similarly Vaseline is a brand name for petroleum jelly. But we casually use the word Vaseline for petroleum jelly lubricant.
ReplyDeletesorry typo. all over the world.
DeleteThank, SG, for similar instances.
DeleteInteresting read about the name of a company becoming the name of processing. I could not readily come up with similar companies.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Parthasarathi.
Delete