Trademarks Lexis and Lexus (was nexis is baffling)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 4/9/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> 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"), so much the better.

Fun fact: When Esso/Enco/Humble Oil needed a consolidated company
name, they enlisted the help of the late Dmitri Borgmann, the father
of recreational linguistics (author of _Language on Vacation_ and
_Beyond Language_ and founding editor of the magazine _Word Ways_).
The story goes that he was hired to come up with an eye-catching name
unlike any word in the English language, yet still reminiscent of
"Esso".  He offered "Exxon", unique since no English word contains two
consecutive x's.


--Ben Zimmer

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