Trademarks Lexis and Lexus (was nexis is baffling)

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:17 AM -0500 4/9/07, Paul Johnson wrote:
>there's always quixotic quality

Not to mention "Iraq".  Now who was the branding consultant that came
up with *that* name?

>Laurence Horn wrote:
>
>>At 5:13 AM -0700 4/9/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>>>It is popularly believed in the ad and marketing industries that X
>>>is the most interesting and enticing letter you can use (I never
>>>spell "sex" without it.)  Contrariwise, Q is the least appealing.
>>>
>>>   So always try to use an X and avoid a Q. If you can suggest some
>>>appealing word with it, like "sex" or luxury" (but definitely not
>>>"tax" or "Xerxes"
>>
>>
>>Or "X-ray"
>>
>>>), so much the better.
>>>
>>I haven't seen anyone opine in that manner on "Q".  The early papers
>>by linguists on trade names --one classic is
>>Pound, Louise (1913). Word-coinage and modern trade names. Dialect
>>Notes 4: 29-41.
>>--tend to focus on the appeal of x's and k's (Kodak, kotex, xerox,
>>etc.)*, but don't mention Q one way or the other.  I'd assume from
>>Compaq and Qantas going out of their way to include them that they
>>can't be universally held in disrepute.  And they do give you all
>>those extra points in Scrabble, after all.
>>
>>LH
>>
>>*see also Henry Bellaman ("Robots of Language", Yale Review, 19
>>(1929): 212-14) on the "verbal fabrications" that "take up the
>>atrocious burden of contemporary advertising". Along with slang--"a
>>product carelessly spawned by tongues of loose morals"--these
>>"monsters" and "clacking robot words" threaten an invasion of the
>>lexicon snatchers, "framed in the buzz of "z's" and the rattle of
>>"x's".  Nary a q in sight, for good or ill.
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org