How many of you think the thing that you do where you place a book over a nice glass screen and magically get a badly copied version of that from one of the holes on the machine you placed it on is called a XEROX? I’m sure its 90% of the Indian population. Well lets just start with its a photocopy and not a xerox, Xerox is actually a company that makes printing equipment and maybe more, don’t believe me? Here look at this, http://www.xerox.com/ , happy?
I’ve been in this auto correct mode where without realizing who i’m correcting i just blurt out
Its photocopy not a xerox 😐
And then i realize what I’ve done! Mostly with teachers, few of them actually are happy that they got over their misconception while most others give that dirty evil look. Nevertheless after being corrected by my dad few years ago i’ve taken up this as my part time freelancing!
It goes without saying that people would ask me why I am being so obnoxious and trying to correct them! Lets not discuss about stuff like that, but something happened on 9th of Feb, 2012 outside Thomas Cook, Bangalore. I was asked to go out for a “photocopy”, well she did use the term xerox for it! I got out of the office and this is the exact conversation I had with the traffic policeman outside(translated from my bad Kannada to English for the international audience :D).
Me: Sir, is there any photocopy shop around here
Policeman: <Puzzled look> heeeh ? (typical halli way)
Me: Sir, is there any place around where i can take photocopies of my passport?
Policeman: Go straight down this road, you will find G K Vale, you can take passport photos there!
Me: <Controlling my urge to correct him> Sir, I need to take a photocopy of my passports not a photo of myself.
Policeman: Do you want a photo or no ?
Me: Ok screw it, where the hell is the XEROX shop? (Yes, i had to fall for it :/)
Policeman: Yeah there is a shop on Church Street.
Me: <Urge killing me> Sir, it is not xerox, it is photocopy.
Policeman: Screw you, do I look like a care?
What could I do! Some you can correct some you cannot, I’m not saying i’m the messenger of god who has been assigned the task of clearing the misconception that xerox is another word for photocopy! But knowing the right thing never hurt, imagine some freak like me who hates it when people say xerox for a photocopy interviewing you for a million dollar job! You don’t want that situation do you?
Next time you see a misused word let me know! I would love to improve at least my knowledge wrt to misused terms and words!
Aadi's Blog 
haha! I know, I do that too 😛 do you also know that the word “prepone” doesn’t exist and its actually advance? :O
You have tried to correct bazillions of people in coll yet no one really learns, shame really 😀
same with hawai chappal !!! lol its a bata product !! not a generic term for slippers !! btw my dad just called me and told this 😛
I’m thinking if I should print a huge poster and put it up in office stating the same 😛
haha thanks to u i’ve been doing that for quite a long time now too.. i’ve actually grown to correct people involuntarily when they use the word “xerox”..even when i dont mean to point it out..:P
Haha !! 😛
Xerox and Hawai are not alone. Look at the following:
AstroTurf, Baggies, Band-Aid, Beer Nuts, Breathalyzer, Brillo Pads, Dacron, Dumpster, Frisbee, Hi-Liter, Hula-Hoop, Jacuzzi, Jeep, Jell-O, Jockey Shorts, Kitty Litter, Kleenex, Laundromat, Liquid Paper, Magic Marker, Muzak, Novocain, Ping-Pong, Play-Doh, Popsicle, Post-it Note, Q-Tip, Realtor, Rollerblade, Scotch Tape, Scrabble, Seeing Eye (dog), Sheetrock, Slim Jim, Styrofoam, Super glue, Technicolor, Teflon, TelePrompTer, Vaseline, Velcro, and Walkman
Sriram
True that! Brands generally take over the product they make !
Lol,I hear you..I do that occasionally myself ,however I do employ discretion,for example I spare the local police 😀
My fav pet peeve is this one:
People always say “comprise of” when it’s actually comprise.
It’s the team comprises A,B and C,
not
the team comprises of A,B and C.
Most boring example ever
lol Xerox is a word now. two wrongs don’t make a right, but apparently millions of wrongs do 😛
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/xerox
Its funny and shocking right ? I think now Vignesh can make his retard replacement for imba a real word now !! 😛