Breaking news - Gaddafi "killed" - Al Jazeera

[Viking]

You're one of the old fucks who doesn't know Hoover is an anglicism for Vacuum Cleaner. You also didn't read the article, it doesn't argue for anything, it summarizes what regular practice for dealing with dead dictators is.

Anglicism? WTF?

It's archaic American slang. If the Brits picked it up from us and still use it that's one thing, but don't act like Americans have never run into it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_cleaner

Hoover

Spangler patented his rotating-brush design June 2, 1908, and eventually sold the idea to his cousin's husband, Hoover. He was looking for a new product to sell, as the leather goods produced by his 'Hoover Harness and Leather Goods' company were becoming obsolete, because of the invention of the automobile. In the United States and other countries, the Hoover Company remains one of the leading manufacturers of household goods, including vacuum cleaners; and Hoover became very wealthy from the invention. Indeed, in Britain the name Hoover became synonymous with the vacuum cleaner so much so that one "hoovers one's carpets". Initially called 'The Electric Suction Sweeper Company' - their first vacuum was the 1908 Model O, which sold for $60.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hoover

hoover
[hoo-ver]   Origin
hoo·ver
   [hoo-ver] Show IPA
verb (used with object) (often initial capital letter) Chiefly British.
to clean with a vacuum cleaner.
Origin: 1925–30; after the trademark of a vacuum cleaner manufacturer

http://www.effingpot.com/objects.shtml - Best of British website

Hoover - Really a brand of vacuum cleaner but the word "hoover" is used to describe all vacuum cleaners. Like you call all copy machines "Xerox machines". We don't Xerox something, we photocopy it. We use the hoover to do the hoovering.

http://britishisms.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/hoover/

Verb, transitive, from the brand of vacuum cleaner, which was apparently hugely popular in the U.K in the mid-20th-century period. The OED reports that the literal verb–that is, to clean by means of a vacum cleaner–appeared no later than 1939 (impressive, since Hoover was patented only in 1927). The first cite for the metaphorical verb ("To consume voraciously; to devour completely. Freq. with up or (occas.) in") is from the 1970 Times:  "The populace‥sit hoovering up the drivel poured out on television at peak viewing times." A Google Ngram suggests that, as with so many Britishisms, U.S. use started to rise in the early 90s and is still going up.

Urban Dictionary offers two additional meanings for the verb. One of them you can guess. The other:

    Being manipulated back into a relationship against your will with threats of suicide or self-harm, threats of harm to others or property, or threats of false criminal accusations. A "hoover" is relationship blackmail. This slang term is often associated with individuals suffering from personality disorders like Borderline Personality Disorder or Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

"Where are we rolling?" "Into the heart of the night. Wherever there are dances to be danced, drugs to be hoovered." (Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City, 1984)/For years, Mr. Madoff's elusive genius act beguiled his Jewish neighbors, as well as friends of those neighbors, and so on, and so on, until vast chunks of local money were hoovered into his Ponzi scheme. (New York Times, April 11, 2009)

It is an American adoption of British Slang. Interestingly enough, Hoover used to be U.S. slang for blowjob, I don't know what that says about grumblers "gran".

[Solmyr]

I wonder where Walastreet is.

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?ftid=0x4d2f0e7f423cf7d1:0x9e71cd04bb4c1055&q=Wala+Street,+Greater+Sudbury,+Ontario,+Canada&hl=en&ved=0CA0Q-gswAA&sa=X&ei=Sd2nTrr3Bciz_AbCsK3zCA

[dps]

I don't know who wrote or editted those online articles, but the idea that the slang use of "hoover" as a verb or as a term for all vacuum cleaners (regardless of their actual brand) is a Briitishism whose "U.S. use started to rise in the early 90s and is still going up" is absurd.  I don't know for sure whether the slang usage originated in the US or in the UK, but given that Hoover is US company, I'd suspect it started in the US.  Even if the slage usage started in the UK, it was certainly common in the US well before the 1990s.  And its use isn't still going up here--it's actually fallen to the point that, as Timmy says, it's probably a bit archaic today--it's something that your parents or grandparents might say.  It was certainly more commonly used in the 1960 and 70s--when posters like grumbler or myself were kids, so we know this from first-hand experience, not just something we read online.

[Richard Hakluyt]

It has been the dominant verb for that activity as long as I can remember.......so...........50 years or so at least.

I think it is due to the lack of synonyms and also that "vacuuming" is not a great term, it sounds rather unpleasant and slightly pretentious. Hoover also operated in the UK prior to WW2 btw. I therefore suspect that the use of the term originated independently in each country......direct contact between the two countries being relatively limited in those days.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm with Puffin on this one.

[Viking]

It's good to see that referring to external sources is insufficient. I'll add my personal experience. I grew up in California, "To hoover with the Hoover" was not used, it was "To clean with/use the vacuum cleaner". Maybe this was because I grew up in Herbert Hoover friendly Palo Alto.

I've provided sound evidence that it is a British Neologism, you have not. Show me that it was in common usage pre 1990's for cleaning with a vacuum cleaner and I'll concede the point. Else I win bitches.

[frunk]

I don't know who wrote or editted those online articles, but the idea that the slang use of "hoover" as a verb or as a term for all vacuum cleaners (regardless of their actual brand) is a Briitishism whose "U.S. use started to rise in the early 90s and is still going up" is absurd.  I don't know for sure whether the slang usage originated in the US or in the UK, but given that Hoover is US company, I'd suspect it started in the US.  Even if the slage usage started in the UK, it was certainly common in the US well before the 1990s.  And its use isn't still going up here--it's actually fallen to the point that, as Timmy says, it's probably a bit archaic today--it's something that your parents or grandparents might say.  It was certainly more commonly used in the 1960 and 70s--when posters like grumbler or myself were kids, so we know this from first-hand experience, not just something we read online.

I agree that my own experience with hoover as a verb shows it being common in the US in the late 70s and early 80s.  I think it's use in the US to refer to vacuuming is in decline, but in other contexts (to pick up or scoop up) is still common. 

[grumbler]

It is an American adoption of British Slang. 

Actually, it is a British adoption of American slang.  None of your sources claims otherwise.  It was more prevalent in Britain, perhaps, but your assertion that it was used in Britain before the US is unfounded (and given that the Hoover company was using their name as a verb in their slogans in the US before the brand became big in the UK.

Interestingly enough, Hoover used to be U.S. slang for blowjob, I don't know what that says about grumblers "gran".

Don't know what it says about you that you know what American servicemen in Iceland used as slang for blowjob. 

[garbon]

Sorry y'all but if your lived experiences aren't viewable by a quick google search, they aren't real.

[Siege]

A poisoned well?

Very funny.

[Zoupa]

Sorry y'all but if your lived experiences aren't viewable by a quick google search, they aren't real.

My personal experience is that a huge majority of yanks use vacuum cleaner, and a somewhat large majority of brits use hoover.

[Razgovory]

Enough about the goddamn vacuum cleaners.

[sbr]

I've never used hoover as a verb in my 41 years unless I am mocking a Brit.

[Neil]

I've never used hoover as a verb in my 41 years unless I am mocking a Brit.

I've only ever used it as a synonym for blowjob.

[Octavian]

Enough about the goddamn vacuum cleaners.

Yeah it really sucks!