Category Archives: Uncategorized

lingua franca

Definition | Meaning

  1. Any language used as a medium of communication between peoples of diverse speech.

Example | Illustration

  • English is now the lingua franca of Asia, although many varieties of English are spoken there, including Australian English, Hong Kong English, Japanese English, Singaporean English, etc.

Etymology | Origin

lexicon

Definition | Meaning

  1. The inventory of words in a given language, dialect, or idiom.

Example | Illustration

  • the English lexicon can be found in an complete dictionary.
  • this dictionary is an effort to record the lexicon of branding and naming

Etymology | Origin

kenning

Definition | Meaning

  1. A name created from a poetic, compound metaphor.

Example | Illustration

  • The Rain Bird Corporation, an American manufacturer of sprinkler systems, contains a kenning for ‘sprinkler’.

jargon

Definition | Meaning

  1. The specialized vocabulary or set of idioms shared by a particular profession or sub-culture.

Example | Illustration

  • geekspeak

Compare | See

  • idiom

invented spelling

Definition | Meaning

  1. The use of non-standard spelling to achieve a desired effect or to otherwise distinguish a name.

Example | Illustration

  • Cingular is an intentionally altered spelling of the word ‘singular’.

interrogatory sentence

Definition | Meaning

  1. Any brand name composed of a complete question.
  2. An interrogatory sentence is designed to engage the consumer by encouraging him or her to answer the question the name poses.

Example | Illustration

  • Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? educational software

Etymology | Origin

ingredient brand

Definition | Meaning

  1. Any brand, typically owned by another company, which is promoted as a key element of a host brand.

Example | Illustration

  • the “Intel Inside” campaign

Etymology | Origin

Compare | See

  • host brand

initialism

Definition | Meaning

  1. Any name formed from first letter or letters of the words in a phrase (IRS, the Internal Revenue Service), the syllables or components of one word (TNT, trinitrotoluene), or a combination of words and syllables (ESP, extrasensory perception) and usually pronounced by spelling out the letters one by one.

Example | Illustration

  • The few advantages of a commercial acronym are that it may challenge the consumer to ‘solve the puzzle’, as if it were a vanity license plate (TCBY, The Country’s Best Yogurt), or else present the consumer with a prefabricated bit of upscale slang (DKNY, Donna Karan New York and MGD, Miller Genuine Draft).
  • The chief disadvantage of an initialism is that it may be unintelligible and forgettable without a prohibitive investment in advertising. It took James Earl Jones to make“This is CNN” a meaningful phrase.

Etymology | Origin

Compare | See

  • acronym