[aargee]

Reference - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/1928701-post.html

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

What you need - A Xerox of your driving license and one original document (PAN card, passport etc) - Damian will keep one original document as a deposit.

Xerox? I'm under the impression that Xerox is the name of the company & if you mean a copy of license to be given, isn't that called a photocopy? Correct me, if I'm wrong

Sorry Mr.Sam, didn't mean to offend you, but to say that, I was impressed by your knowledge & didn't expect this from you. Couldn't resist myself posting this & sorry about the off topic.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Normal Indian usage.

Do you take your tea out in a vacuum flask, or in a thermos? Do you clean your carpets with a vacuum cleaner, or do you hoover them?

Xerox may not have stuck as an ordinary noun equivalent to photocopy in the rest of the world, but it has in India --- so I support Sam's use of the word as being correct. I know, from experience, that asking where I can get a photocopy, in Chennai, just gets puxxled looks!

But ask where you can get a xerox in London, and you will get the same puzzled looks!

[Samurai]

Sometimes I get confused between rise and raise. Sun rises, but salary raises. Both refer to going up, but when to use which?

Originally Posted by aargee

Xerox? I'm under the impression that Xerox is the name of the company & if you mean a copy of license to be given, isn't that called a photocopy? Correct me, if I'm wrong

Xerox is one of those words that has become a verb just like googling. The exact term for that is brand dilution. People refer to the brand name, yet don't mean that brand. How many Xerox shops in India use photocopiers from Xerox, practically none.

Originally Posted by aargee

Sorry Mr.Sam, didn't mean to offend you, but to say that, I was impressed by your knowledge & didn't expect this from you. Couldn't resist myself posting this & sorry about the off topic.

Sam is known to be very short-tempered, and he will be very offended. Let's hope he doesn't see this.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Sam is known to be very short-tempered, and he will be very offended. Let's hope he doesn't see this.

Ha ha, that is a good one, Samurai!!

Just like xerox has become synonymous with photocopying, 'Surf' was the only detergent a coule of decades ago, and it was not uncommon to hear housewife's asking for some Surf to wash clothes. Agreed, it is not common nowadays as we have Henko, Tide and so many other brands of detergents.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Sometimes I get confused between rise and raise. Sun rises, but salary raises. Both refer to going up, but when to use which?

I think sun rises by itself every morning, but you could raise the sun i you had enough strength yourself.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by Samurai

... The exact term for that is brand dilution. People refer to the brand name, yet don't mean that brand....

Another common example : Fridge.

Whats it short for?

If you're thinking Frigidaire, thats a brand of refrigerator.

Originally Posted by Samurai

... Both refer to going up, but when to use which?

Just remember that you can raise something, but you cannot rise something. (eg. you can raise the dead, raise your employees pay, but the sun rises on its own as does the tide etc). How you remember this might be the harder part!

cya
R

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Do you take your tea out in a vacuum flask, or in a thermos? Do you clean your carpets with a vacuum cleaner, or do you hoover them?

It is regional. If you say hoover the carpet, you will get puzzled looks in the US

Originally Posted by Samurai

Sometimes I get confused between rise and raise. Sun rises, but salary raises. Both refer to going up, but when to use which.

You raise the window after you rise from bed in the morning when the sun rises and this raises your spirits.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Really? even though Hoover was an American company (I think)?

I freely admit that I know very little about American English (almost as little as my Tamil!). Just that I shouldn't ask for a rubber when I want to erase something, a fag when I want to smoke something, and when a beautiful blonde says, "Hello, I'm Randy," it does not mean that my dream has come true

Fridge is short for refrigerator. Pram is short for perambulator...

You get a raise --- but that means that your salary rises!

I think that something rises but that you raise something. Is that transitive/intransitive? Something like that...

EDIT

Like Vivek says, raise when someone else does it. You raise the window after you rise from bed in the morning when the sun rises to raise your mood.

Been covered. I'm too late on this one...

[carboy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Really? even though Hoover was an American company (I think)?

Yup, sucks like a Hoover is a common phrase in the US.
In England, it would probably be sucks like a Dyson, right?

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I freely admit that I know very little about American English (almost as little as my Tamil!). Just that I shouldn't ask for a rubber when I want to erase something, a fag when I want to smoke something, and when a beautiful blonde says, "Hello, I'm Randy," it does not mean that my dream has come true

:-)


Not related to the post I am replying to but I just remembered another Indian English phrase which is not at all understood in the USA - "Please do the needfull". Is this phrase used in the UK?

[McLaren Rulez]

Oh and Xerox is commonly used in the US. Remember Hillary Clinton's campaign line "Change you can Xerox" against Obama?

[Thad E Ginathom]

... the birthplace of Xerox, of course.

Youngsters may not recall the days when the patent was still in force and every photo-copying machine was a xerox.

Dyson is too young (and expensive) to have become a household name in UK, as yet at least. My hoover is a Dyson.

Isn't doing the needful associated with, errr, a small incentive to do same? Corruption has it's place in UK, but it does not affect the general public in their dealings with public servants, police, etc etc. The needful either gets done or does not

No... we don't use the expression, but I wonder if it might be a colonial leftover?

[carboy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Isn't doing the needful associated with, errr, a small incentive to do same? Corruption has it's place in UK, but it does not affect the general public in their dealings with public servants, police, etc etc. The needful either gets done or does not

No... we don't use the expression, but I wonder if it might be a colonial leftover?

No - it has nothing to do with corruption. "Do the needful" is used instead of "Do it".

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Normal Indian usage.

Xerox may not have stuck as an ordinary noun equivalent to photocopy in the rest of the world, but it has in India --- so I support Sam's use of the word as being correct. I know, from experience, that asking where I can get a photocopy, in Chennai, just gets puxxled looks!

Well, here in Chennai, if you ask for "JeRaakkss", chances of getting puzzled looks is practically "JeeRRo"

My take on this is, people find it easier to say xerox than photocopy - lesser number of syllables.

[Thad E Ginathom]

My take on this is, people find it easier to say xerox than photocopy - lesser number of syllables.

but... once upon a time, every photocopy was a Xerox. and if we want to economise on syllables (I find the opposite to be true in Indian English!) we just say "copy"

Oh, and, re your signature... as of the past couple of months, do use Linux

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Xerox is one of those words that has become a verb just like googling. The exact term for that is brand dilution. People refer to the brand name, yet don't mean that brand. How many Xerox shops in India use photocopiers from Xerox, practically none.

That is correct. All of them use either Canon or Ricoh copiers.

During my school days, I have heard the term "Pleasure" being used for car in rural TN, usually by uneducated, weaker sections of the society. It seems during colonial times they were known as "Pleasure cars" and over the years the car was dropped, but pleasure remained. "They are very well off, they will come by pleasure from Chennai" was what I used to hear!

Another funny usage was the term "Britannia"! A villager will go to a shop and ask "give me one Britannia" and will casually walk away with whatever brand of biscuit was handed out! For him Britannia was generic for "biscuit"! And the term for a cold (bottled) drink was "colour"! It can be anything from Coke or Pepsi to even some local stuff!