Posted by
Russell Standish on
Apr 22, 2007; 11:17pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Can-you-guess-the-source-tp523696p523767.html
On Sun, Apr 22, 2007 at 09:45:11AM -0400, Phil Henshaw wrote:
>
> 1. the product Corian is a solid plastic countertop material that became
> popular, and the term began to be used to describe the whole class of
> similar products that began to develop. Then someone came up with the
> replacement term 'solid surface' to refer to the industry that grew out
> of the original product. How would a computer be able to suggest that
> when you search for 'Corian' you might actually be looking for 'solid
> surface'.
Isn't English funny? To me, a brick wall is a solid surface, as
opposed to the ocean's surface, which is not.
I understand the process of genericisation, but why would Corian ever
refer to stone?
And I could never understand why "alloy" was used to refer to certain
non-ferrous materials used for some car components, but not the steel out of
which most of the car is made.
Cheers
--
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