This is a very common language process as evidenced by the fact that words like 
escalator, zipper, yo yo, aspirin, and many more used to be trademarked terms. 
(There is a legal process that acknowledges the generic use of trademarked terms 
and actually dissolves the trademark, which is why many trademark holders are 
passionate about branding!)

John,

This may be more than tangential but note that "yoyo" has, or at least did have, 
special meaning to forces under siege, who have asked for reinforcements but 
whose request, however urgent and for whatever reason, cannot by fulfilled. The 
message back will simply be "YOYO', which everyone on both ends knows means, "we 
are trying our best to send help but at the moment we cannot, so "you're on your 
own".

Even more remote, during the last days of the siege of Dien Bien Phu in French 
Indo-China in 1954, French paratroops dropped from as low as 300 feet to try to 
reinforce the garrison, even though it was clearly a lost cause. Their chutes 
barely opened before they hit the ground, but the lack of altitude made less of 
a target for enemy gunners. All perished.

A mere decade later, the USA would begin to prove that it was a lesson we did 
not learn.

.brad.01sep10.


      

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