[TT] Beavering Away . . .

[Richmond Mathewson]

Oh, Dear, my instructor (of EFL techniques, I rush to add) told me that
'hoovering' meant this:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hoover definition No. 2

I didn't realise that the verb had a slightly different meaning to the 
noun.

The reason 'hoovering' means vacuuming in Britain is because
Hoover was the first company to mass market vacuum cleaners there.
In fact 'hoover' is so tightly linked (semantically) with vacuum cleaners
that other white goods made by Hoover (washing-machines and so on) are
never referred to as a 'hoover'.

This is similar to the verb 'to xerox', meaning to photocopy.

Presumably 'to xerox' means, in America, to photocopy intimate
pieces of one's anatomy :)

sincerely, Richmond Mathewson.

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A Thorn in the flesh is better than a failed Systems Development Life Cycle.
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