According to a dictionary Tupperware is a company name and refers to their products.
In the daily conversation the word is used also for other company's plastic container? Or just for their products?
0
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
As a native English speaker, I use "Tupperware" for general plastic containers, not just for specifically Tupperware's products. In the same way, many people use "Kleenex" instead of "tissue" even though Kleenex is a brand name.
-
I dunno, I say plastic container. Not sure Tupperware has reached the status of kleenex and xerox.– LambieCommented May 13, 2017 at 14:43
-
1@Lambie: I thought Tupperware was just a 60s thing, but I've just discovered from Wikipedia that 250,000 "sales persons" (Tupperware party hostesses?) shifted over $200M of product in Indonesia in 2013. I'd tend to just say "plastic tubs/containers" myself today, but I expect most Anglophones would at least recognise it as a generic usage, even if they'd never actually encountered the genuine article (I've never owned a real Hoover, for example, but whatever I have I always call a hoover, never a vacuum cleaner). Commented May 13, 2017 at 17:03
Tupperware
is an example of a generic trademark there are many other examples: Kleenex, Xerox, Thermos, Zamboni, Chap Stick, where the trademarked name is used to refer to the functional object.
Tupperware is usually used to refer to plastic containers with formed sides and snap close lids for carrying leftover food. Similar foodstock containers are made by Rubbermaid, Hefty, and Ziploc, and they are often generically referred to as "Tupperware".
-
Generic trademark is a legal term and generally decided in a court of law. Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 21:07
-
@whiskeychief - The linked-to Wikipedia article delves into that.– J.R. ♦Commented Aug 19, 2019 at 21:49