Is Kleenex a eponym?
Deonym Vs.
For example, Disneyland or Dickensian are eponyms because they originate from Walt Disney and Charles Dickens, who are both real people. Kleenex, on the other hand, is a deonym since it's a product name that stands for a paper tissue. The two terms are often used synonymously.
Although Kleenex is a registered trademark of Kimberly-Clark Corporation, for many consumers, the word has become interchangeable with "tissue." Other brand names that have fallen victim to genericization include Google, Taser, and Xerox. Even common words like kerosene and escalator were once trademarked.
The name "vaseline" is said by the manufacturer to be derived from German Wasser "water" + Greek έλαιον (elaion) "oil". Vaseline was made by the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company until the company was purchased by Unilever in 1987.
Eponyms can also be derived from the names of places, products, or objects. These kinds of eponyms include zipper, crockpot, Lego, coke, and diesel.
An Eponym Definition and Example
“Thanks to his Machiavellian antics, Joe got a promotion that he didn't earn.” In this sentence, the word 'Machiavellian' is a reference to the Italian author, Machiavelli. That's an eponym. What is an eponym? It's a word that comes from the proper name of a person or place.
1 : the person for whom something (as a disease) is or is believed to be named. 2 : a name (as of a drug or a disease) based on or derived from the name of a person.
Facial tissues are often referred to simply as "tissues", or (in Canada and the United States) by the generic trademark "Kleenex", which popularized the invention and its use outside of Japan.
Proprietary eponyms are another matter entirely. These are general words that are, or were at one time, proprietary brand names or service marks. Kleenex, for example, is a brand of facial tissues, yet the word is used today to refer to facial tissues of any brand.
When you use a brand name as a generic term, you're using a proprietary eponym, or, more simply, a generic trademark. You're probably familiar with this phenomenon, but there are more examples of it than you might realize. You may be aware of Kleenex, Velcro and ChapStick, but what about escalator? Or dumpster?
When you use a brand name as a generic term, you're using a proprietary eponym, or, more simply, a generic trademark. You're probably familiar with this phenomenon, but there are more examples of it than you might realize. You may be aware of Kleenex, Velcro and ChapStick, but what about escalator? Or dumpster?
Where did Kleenex come from?
The original Kleenex trademark application at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) was filed in the class of Medical, Beauty, & Agricultural Services by Cellucotton Products Company of Neenah, Wisconsin, on Saturday July 12, 1924.
The slogan, “Don't carry a cold in your pocket,” comes from an advertisement in the 1930s by Kimberly-Clark, as Kleenex, an antidote to germs.
Folds that changed everything. The first tissue products as we'd recognize them today were invented and produced by the American paper manufacturer Kimberly-Clark, who developed cellulose as a replacement for cotton in sanitary products during World War I.