Grammar Girl here. I'm Injohn Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language.

We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff.

Today, we're going to talk about what makes something a trademark and how to use trademarked terms in your writing.

And then, in honor of Thanksgiving in the

U.S. we'll talk about why we use the phrase, thank you. If you've ever ubered over to a friend's

house, zoomed with a colleague, Xeroxed a document, Googled an unfamiliar term, or wished you knew

how to Photoshop images better, then you may be an accessory

to genericide. Genericide is what trademark experts call it when society turns brand names

into plain old everyday words, or generics. Brand names are usually trademarked to keep competitors

from using them and possibly stealing your

customers or cheapening your name. But according to trademark law, you can't trademark a generic

term, so you can see why slipping from brand name to generic status is a big deal. Hence, the scary

sounding term, genericide. Companies spend a lot of time and money

protecting trademarks, so how does genericide happen? Well, technically, trademarks are adjectives,

modifying nouns, as in Band-Aid brand adhesive bandage, Kleenex tissue, and chapstick lip balm. It's easy to shorten these

phrases, especially in everyday speech. I'm much more likely to ask you to hand me a Kleenex than a

Kleenex tissue, and I'll probably offer you a popsicle more quickly than a popsicle brand ice pop.

And so the original noun phrase,

the trademark adjective Kleenex, and the noun it modifies tissue, gets shortened to just the noun,

Kleenex. From there, the nouns easily change the same way we change other nouns. They can be pluralized, as in, hand me a couple of

band-a-a-a-a-counters, or let's get two ubers. In rare cases, they might even be deplorized.

I bet you to know that a baby's onesie is technically a Gerber brand onesies infant body suit.

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