Neologisms successfully spread by marketers (again)

[Michael H Covarrubias]

**In a message dated 10/21/06 11:35:09 AM, RonButters at AOL.COM writes:

> Also, the literature on American
> trademarks usually lists escalator
> as a generic term, not a brand
> name, though it may once have been a TM.

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The Otis Elevator Company was the original builder.  I'm not sure that
'escalator' was ever capitalized, but even if it never was a brand name it
certainly went from proprietary into general use.

It was of course too ambitious a claim I made, that nobody can even "think" of
another word for the escalator.  I'm sure someone can think of one.  Most
assuredly so if we allow compounds or phrases.  The OED provides an early
citation from 1990:

"N.Y. Jrnl. 25 Nov. 59/2 The escalator..is a movable stairway built by the Otis
Elevator Company for the use of passengers of the Manhattan Elevated Railway."

What I love about this word is how productive it became -- having once been so
specific.  'Escalate' 'escalation' 'escalating' 'escalatory'...all formed by the
complete inclusion of the word -- divorced from its tether to Otis -- into
everyday use.

It's even gone so far as to tend to latch on to a new context -- the growing or
escalating tensions and trends of conflicts and weaponry.



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   Michael H. Covarrubias
   Department of English
   Purdue University

   215 Heavilon Hall
   500 Oval Dr
   W Lafayette, IN 47907
   Office: 765-494-3721

   mcovarru at purdue.edu

   wishydig.blogspot.com

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