Genericised

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Reduced from a protected brand name to a common descriptive term through widespread popular use, as when a trademark becomes the ordinary name for a product category
2. Converted from a proprietary trademark into a general term by becoming so commonly used that consumers no longer associate it with the original maker
3. Transformed from an exclusive brand designation into a generic word through such widespread adoption that the trademark protection is lost

Etymology: "Genericised" is the past tense and past participle of "genericise", which describes a trademark that has slid into common use as the name of the product itself, so that the brand loses its legal protection. The verb is built from "generic" and the suffix "-ise", and "generic" traces back through Middle French "générique" and Latin "genus", meaning "kind" or "class". The idea behind it is simple: a name that once picked out one company's product becomes a label for any product of that kind. Familiar examples show the process. "Aspirin", "escalator" and "thermos" were all once protected brand names, and each lost that status as the public used them for the whole category. The same risk hangs over any firm whose name becomes a verb, and companies often campaign to stop their trademarks from being used that way.

Synonyms: genericized, generalized, generalised