Hoovering or vacuuming?

[shazzabell]

What's the difference?

[Mattk]

no difference - 'hoover'ing was used because hoover were the main manufacturer of vacuum cleaners.

[zipadeedodah]

Yep, William Henry Hoover was a an American manufacturer of vacuum cleaners, and I guess was so popular that people actually referred to vacuum cleaning as "Hoovering". Hoover have been one of the most successful companies to achieve a brand franchise like this, where lots of people associate the name Hoover with all vacuum cleaners, whatever the make. Right..im even boring myself now...

[shazzabell]

Interesting. Thanks you pair!

[smorodina]

It's odd how some brand names become so identified with the product that they become the generic term. Many people call a ball-point pen a 'biro', a tissue a 'kleenex' and 'xeroxing' is now the usual term for photo-copying. Others include 'pyrex', 'tupperware', 'thermos' 'coke' 'lino' 'sellotape' etc...

[spudqueen]

smorodina, don't forget 'tannoy'. I remember a letter in a newspaper from the 'Tannoy' company who were taking exception to the fact that that newspaper had printed an article mentioning the ships 'tannoy' system. They should have (apparently) said 'public address system'. Personally I thought it a bit petty at a time like that.

[Headtime]

Also Private Eye magazine had a recent run-in with Portakabin, over similar mis-use of their product name when referring to temporary commercial spaces.

[craigheaslip]

Hoover is the vacuum cleaning equivalent of Coca Cola (or Coke). You say in the bar "I'll have a coke", but really you mean cola (unless you particularly want a coca cola). Similarly, unless you own a Hoover brand vacuum cleaner, you vacuum the floor.

That's the power of branding for you!

[Mr.Ix]

and as my Domestic Science teacher was always at pains to point out, modern day cleaners don't work via a vacuum anymore so they should be more accurately called Suction Cleaners. We used to stop listening at that point

[The Tiggster]

Mr.Ix must have been at the same Domestic Science school as me as my teacher used to shout at us for saying hoover when we were refering to cleaning the floor. She used to insist we said either "cleaning with an upright suction cleaner" or "cleaning with a cylinder suction cleaner" depending on the type of cleaner we were using !!  

Sad isn't it, but it's stuck with me ever since.