"suave"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/30/2008 09:59 AM, Charles Doyle wrote:
> From the mystery novel _The Lost Van Gogh_, by A. J. Zerries
> (2006):  "The French dealer was everything 'suave' used to stand
> for, before a line of knockoff shampoos irreversibly debased the
> word" (p. 144).
>
>I'd never noticed or considered the purported debasing of "suave." I
>wonder if it has really happened. How common is it that the use of a
>word as a brand name affects the word's connotations?

Would "Coke" qualify?

Joel

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