SifuPhil
R.I.P. With Us In Spirit Only
- Location
- Pennsylvania, USA
People tell me that the English language is an amorphous thing, that it is constantly changing, evolving, improving.
Bull-dinky, says I.
Nowadays there are only two ways of naming new inventions and improvements in existing ones: E and I. Two simple vowels out of a choice of 5 (sometimes 6), but they are slathered across the marketing landscape like so many Burma-Shave signs in the '50's. Witness: iPhone, eBook, iPad, eHarmony ... and a few thousand others.
Whatever happened to being unique? Is it such a crime now that we don't have those fantastic names form the '50's anymore? Just think about the associations you make when you hear such words as DynaFlow, Cruise-O-Matic, Heterodyne, HydraGuide and D-Cel-O ...
Heck, I had an old Cadillac with a button on the dashboard marked "LevelRide" - I was afraid to push it, but I always admired it's quiet dignity and ability to inspire such dream-like thoughts. A ride that is level ... not bouncy, not angled - just LEVEL. Like floating on clouds ... dream-like ...
Now we have Actively Computer-Enhanced Road-Vehicle Interface - Experimental (A CERVIX).
The '50's were a time when science ruled; rockets and jet planes were an obsession of the general public, to the point where any car that mattered was sporting huge fins ...
But it wasn't only cars that had unique, colorful names coined. We now have bras instead of brassieres or, Heaven forbid, undergarments or even unmentionables. The ice box became the refrigerator which in turn became the fridge, and the percolator (LOVE that word!) became the boring and predictable coffeemaker.
It seems that with each succeeding generation we become more and more distant from exotic, playful or fantastical names, in their place using computer-derived words that are sterile, unemotional and bland.
It's enough to put me off my supper... I mean, dinner.
Bull-dinky, says I.
Nowadays there are only two ways of naming new inventions and improvements in existing ones: E and I. Two simple vowels out of a choice of 5 (sometimes 6), but they are slathered across the marketing landscape like so many Burma-Shave signs in the '50's. Witness: iPhone, eBook, iPad, eHarmony ... and a few thousand others.
Whatever happened to being unique? Is it such a crime now that we don't have those fantastic names form the '50's anymore? Just think about the associations you make when you hear such words as DynaFlow, Cruise-O-Matic, Heterodyne, HydraGuide and D-Cel-O ...
Heck, I had an old Cadillac with a button on the dashboard marked "LevelRide" - I was afraid to push it, but I always admired it's quiet dignity and ability to inspire such dream-like thoughts. A ride that is level ... not bouncy, not angled - just LEVEL. Like floating on clouds ... dream-like ...
Now we have Actively Computer-Enhanced Road-Vehicle Interface - Experimental (A CERVIX).
The '50's were a time when science ruled; rockets and jet planes were an obsession of the general public, to the point where any car that mattered was sporting huge fins ...
But it wasn't only cars that had unique, colorful names coined. We now have bras instead of brassieres or, Heaven forbid, undergarments or even unmentionables. The ice box became the refrigerator which in turn became the fridge, and the percolator (LOVE that word!) became the boring and predictable coffeemaker.
It seems that with each succeeding generation we become more and more distant from exotic, playful or fantastical names, in their place using computer-derived words that are sterile, unemotional and bland.
It's enough to put me off my supper... I mean, dinner.
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