Language desk
< March 13	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	March 15 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 14

"To play Nintendo"

Can the company name "Nintendo" be classified as a neologism of the 1980s when used instead of the term "video game from Nintendo" or "video game console from Nintendo"? Usage examples: "to play Nintendo", "I'm taking the Nintendo with me on vacation." – Gebu (talk) 11:01, 14 March 2021 (UTC) edited 14:33, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Not at all. There are other video game consoles besides the Nintendo, notably the PS4/5 and the Xbox. So when someone says "to play Nintendo", they actually mean they are playing Nintendo rather than one of those other consoles. --Viennese Waltz 11:10, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Well, you think that that is what they mean. But if the OP could provide a substantial number of references where owners of, say, Sony, Microsoft, or Sega consoles referred to their machines as "nintendos" then I would argue that, yes, it's a neologism. See hoover, or coke. Bazza (talk) 11:17, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That still wouldn't meet the definition of a neologism, though. See List of generic and_genericized trademarks#List of protected trademarks frequently used as generic terms. --Viennese Waltz 11:40, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The only thing I found was There’s No Such Thing As A Nintendo which describes Nintendo's efforts to prevent its name from being used as a proprietary eponym. This article describes the downside for businesses of having their trade names enter everyday speech. Alansplodge (talk) 11:49, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

(Came from Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Linguistics#"To play Nintendo", where the OP said I am in the process of adding articles to the Category:Neologisms (German) in the German Wikipedia.) Neologism is such an ill-defined term that having Wikipedia categories based on it strikes me as a fool's errand. Our article defines it as a term "that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not yet been fully accepted into mainstream language", but at what point? Any term that has been accepted was in the process of entering common use at some point, and any term that didn't catch on may have been a neologism at one point but it no longer is. So categories like "1980s neologisms" seem like oxymorons if our definition is to be believed. Laptop, jumping the shark, millennials, and queer certainly aren't in the process of entering common use, are they?

As for Nintendo, even if it was used as a generic term for any game or console, it sounds like an instance of metonymy rather than a neologism, but again, because of the murky nature of the term, one could pick virtually anything and argue it is or was a neologism. Nardog (talk) 13:30, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for your answers! Viennese Waltz is right. As far as I know, the phrase "to play Nintendo" was used for playing on a video game console from Nintendo. There may have been a similar phrase "to play Sega" for playing on a video game console from Sega. A similar phrase from the late 1990s is "to google". According to Google (verb), this verb is a neologism. @Nardog: I am going to discuss the Wikipedia article about the linguistic term "neologism" on Talk:Neologism. – Gebu (talk) 14:41, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I can attest that my parents referred to my brother as "playing Nintendo" no matter which console he was actually using at the time. Of course, that's just anecdotal.--Khajidha (talk) 14:50, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

If I can find that article about eponyms, I will xerox it and fedex it to you all. --T*U (talk) 16:37, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In the early 90s, older folks might call any game system "a nintendo" or call PC gaming "playing nintendo." That went away as the brand lost hegemony and video games became more mainstream. Temerarius (talk) 22:39, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I fail to see how whether the word was used to refer to any game system has any bearing on whether it constitutes a neologism. Nardog (talk) 22:48, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This reminds me: In Finnish, the word "peli" literally means "game" but can colloquially be used to refer to gaming devices as well. Because of this, I once saw a small ads announcement that literally read "Myydään Nintendo peli ja pelejä", in English: "For sale: a Nintendo game and some games". JIP | Talk 23:45, 14 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]