why not call em NOS tanks?

[spidereddie]

Originally Posted by xxxxx

Dude its not nos. NOS is a fucking company.... call it nitrous, NOS is given a bad name because of ricers... the proper way to say it would have been: also to be added are 2 NOS nitrous tanks in the trunk

I'm not trying to start a fight... just a mature discussion, so please keep responses as such. I ran across this in another thread and just wondered how people felt.


You'd think that it's quite an ignorant thing that requires someone to become so enflamed at the words "I put 2 NOS tanks in the trunk". But the reality of language and its users' suceptability to use short-cuts is represented very well here. The phenomenon of giving a name to an item regardless of manufacturer [called a propietary eponym]has been studied by linguist for decades. There are many instances of propietary eponyms in our language.

Examples:

When was the last time you called it a 'flying disc' [Wham-O Inc. is credited with the mass-selling and renaming of the 'Pluto Platter' that led everyone to use that name regardless of brand to identify the lovely plastic 'plate' we all had so much trouble throwing when we were kids].

And how about a facial tissue [Kleenex brand facial tissues have long been the front runners in this niche of personal hygiene, ergo....everyone calls it a 'kleenex'. Even if it's made by Wal-Mart].

The same goes, although to a lesser extent, for window cleaner. Not many have a problem looking at a generic bottle of blue window cleaner and saying "I found the Windex".

Do you tell people to make you a photocopy of a document or just say "Xerox this for me"?

Introducing umbrella terms [even if they're registered trademarks] into our everyday language for the sake of efficiency, understandability and ease is as natural to language as pronouns. Think of it as a 'slang' of sorts. And especially when a company's product becomes so well known and common place that it only seams reasonable for easy communication for someone to say.

"Hand me a Kleenex so I can clean my Frisbee with this Windex". Instead of "Hand me a facial tissue so I can clean my flying disc with this window cleaner"

So get use to plain ol' 'NOS tanks'. The media has already taken grasp of this term to refer to any brand name nitrous oxide system, and if history is a lesson, everyone else is sure to follow.


Here's a website to check out if your bored for some more info and references about propietary eponyms.

http://rinkworks.com/words/eponyms.shtml

[SnakekanS]

amen

[SonyMobile]

I agree, i think the reason everyone calls it NOS is because it was used in TF&TF, and for the fact that its easy to say, sounds cool, and is the most popular nitrous system on the market. Now, if they were to have used the nitrous made by JG Edelbrock, would everyone refer to nitrous as JG Edelbrock?

but i totaly agree with everything eddie said! good topic to bring up, because it gets argued over enough around here!

[simdel1]

hoover used to describe any vacuum cleaner regardless of its manufacturer would be another one.

i agree partly with what this xxxx charcter said. i personally get iritated by people calling calling things by brand names (oh, jeep for any off roader too) as i simply see it as proof that marketing can brainwash people. however i dissagree with how he said what he said. to be honest you can call nitrous whatever the hell you want. as long as we all know what we mean, thats all that matters. im certainly not going to start crusading againt the use of the work kleenex either...

sorry if my post is a little vauge. im just trying to sit nicely in the middle of the road for this one.

[chubbs36chambers]

People remember what NOS stands for Nitrous Oxide System in a short way people call it NOS. Plus when people say it they dont refer to the company "NOS". I do agree with Simdel1 i also hate people that use the word JEEP to refer to off road vehicles. its the small things that screw up the english vocabulary. and for English to be my second language its some hard ass shit!!!! its difficult adapting to these word meanings. But my point is NOS is just NOS. People will refer to Nitrous systems simply as NOS even if they have installed a ZEX, Venom, NX nitrous system. People will still call them NOS. Unless they are asked what brand of NOS they have installed the will say " I have the ZEX system'' and so On. But you do have a good point sipereddie.

[Motard]

I am not on either side of this argument, but I just wanted to point out that "Jeep" came about from saying "G P" which was used for describing Milatry General Purpose vehicles.

But as has been already mentioned it is common practice for the most popular brand of a product to become the name that all that type of product are called.

[dag65]

THe funny thing is most people throw around the term NOS and haven't a clue as to how it works or what it does
And on a similar note I lived in Texas once and they call everything Coke even if its Pepsi or another brand

[CamaroSSBoy346]

haha, back in the days, when their used to be a chat rooms on MSN (Street Racing room-most popular room about cars on MSN; i was a moderater too heh heh...-SS and Will (ProjectGreyTrash or PGT might remember-) This was always brought up in our discussions. Everyone-including myself- felt it should be nitrous. not NOS. NOS just sounds retarded. lol NAWZ!

[willimo]

Originally Posted by dag65

THe funny thing is most people throw around the term NOS and haven't a clue as to how it works or what it does

There is the real crime. Who cares what you call it, really, but it has become a trendy thing to know about cars, and most people don't know much at all. They just throw around the words they hear. Would it kill some people to do a little research? Oh, and this isn't a problem on the board, just in general. Most people here try to firgure stuff out before building it in scale. And I appreciate that effort.

[tonioseven]

I prefer the term "Nitrous"

[ProSStreet]

I usually pronounce NOS as N O S not nawwzz
but most of the time its nitrous to me
I wish the fast and the furious was never created, it has stained the import car scene for ever.

[nis.k.a.]

The only gripe I have is the term "NAWZ". Nas is a rapper.

N.O.S.

[86_SR5]

Originally Posted by CamaroSSBoy346

haha, back in the days, when their used to be a chat rooms on MSN (Street Racing room-most popular room about cars on MSN; i was a moderater too heh heh...-SS and Will (ProjectGreyTrash or PGT might remember-) This was always brought up in our discussions. Everyone-including myself- felt it should be nitrous. not NOS. NOS just sounds retarded. lol NAWZ!

I remember that mike. All the time, specially that spanish dude that came in and said Tene Civic con nos. Or, I have a civic with nos.

I call it nitrous, or spell it out, N-O-S. NOS is for ricers. It should be called nitrous, Holley, the real maker of N.O.S. Inc., owns Venom, NX, NOS, Edelbrock, ZEX, Sniper, and uhh 2 others I think.

[digitalbanzai]

How about we just leave this at "call it what you want, and don't let anyone tell you that you have to say it any different?"

[Zcaithaca]

Originally Posted by ProSStreet

I wish the fast and the furious was never created, it has stained the import car scene for ever.

i have to disagree...yes,f&f isnt like "real" street racing and stuff like that but for real...thoose are some badass cars...i mean, if you saw the 2f2f skyline driving down the street you would probably wet yourself, or at least, i would. Just cuz the movie isnt too great the cars are badass...

Anyway i think you can call it whatever you want...i use naws just for easiblity...but if i am ta;lking about a specific company i will say NX or Venom or whatnot...i say call it what you want but dont critisize others for it.