Ras Het posted:

Portugal is Eastern Europe

i say swears online posted:

also possible there are some countries with government programs to incentivize memberships as an employment bonus

quote:

May 2016: Asinta’s Partner in Italy, De Besi-Di Giacomo, has reported back the following important changes in employee benefits this year:

• Flexible Benefits

o At the very end of 2015, the Italian government published a decree which allowed employers and employees to gain fiscal benefits from paying and receiving production premiums or other benefits not linked to such premiums. The rules for this flexible benefit system were published at the end of March 2016.

o Employees making less than 50,000€ per year now have two options: to receive their benefits as cash (and paying a 10% fixed tax), or as school fees, welfare, gym membership, etc. (and paying no tax). In the first scenario, both employer and employee will pay tax on the benefit amount. In the second scenario, however, neither party will be liable for those taxes.

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

Carthag Tuek posted:

lol at "maelstorm"

Guavanaut posted:

Excludes cheeses and wines, includes buggery.

Saladman posted:

"Dumpster"

Saladman posted:

That's a neat map. It'd be interesting to see it for common words in other languages, like for instance the French word for candle, "bougie", is named after the city Bejaia in Algeria which was historically spelled & pronounced "Bougie" in French.

Kind of related, I found out "Thermos" is a specific brand name word and not a generic term. https://www.qualitylogoproducts.com/blog/brand-names-generic-terms/ has a list of other brand name words that are now regular words, maybe half of which I had no idea were brands ("Dumpster", "Popsicle"). Also eRIP "Skype" being used as a generic word for video call, way to absolutely wreck that property Microsoft. I also haven't heard anyone say "xerox" instead of "make a printed copy" in like 10+ years. Both "Skype" and "Xerox" seem to be going the way of "klaxon", at least in my circles. Interestingly though "klaxon" is still the standard word used in French for car horn, especially as a verb ('honk') but also as the noun.

Guavanaut posted:

Excludes cheeses and wines, includes buggery.

Platystemon posted:

Cable Guy posted:

Velcro is an interesting one in that regard... few years back the PR dept at the Velcro company put out a release saying that the product was "hook and loop fastening tape" or something and that they'd like people to call it that instead of diluting their brand name....

...until people pointed out that the inventor had called it Velcro and that the company was named after the product.

hashtag_things_i_learned_from_QI

Cable Guy posted:

Velcro is an interesting one in that regard... few years back the PR dept at the Velcro company put out a release saying that the product was "hook and loop fastening tape" or something and that they'd like people to call it that instead of diluting their brand name....

...until people pointed out that the inventor had called it Velcro and that the company was named after the product.

hashtag_things_i_learned_from_QI

Bongo Bill posted:

It was a pretty catchy song though.

Lord Hydronium posted:

The big differences among the Baltics are interesting. Estonia is even lower than Switzerland, wonder what causes that (assuming the map is accurate).

Saladman posted:

That's a neat map. It'd be interesting to see it for common words in other languages, like for instance the French word for candle, "bougie", is named after the city Bejaia in Algeria which was historically spelled & pronounced "Bougie" in French.

Kind of related, I found out "Thermos" is a specific brand name word and not a generic term. https://www.qualitylogoproducts.com/blog/brand-names-generic-terms/ has a list of other brand name words that are now regular words, maybe half of which I had no idea were brands ("Dumpster", "Popsicle"). Also eRIP "Skype" being used as a generic word for video call, way to absolutely wreck that property Microsoft. I also haven't heard anyone say "xerox" instead of "make a printed copy" in like 10+ years. Both "Skype" and "Xerox" seem to be going the way of "klaxon", at least in my circles. Interestingly though "klaxon" is still the standard word used in French for car horn, especially as a verb ('honk') but also as the noun.

Guavanaut posted:

Excludes cheeses and wines, includes buggery.

Guavanaut posted:

Doesn't sedan come from the chair rather than the place?

Guavanaut posted:

Doesn't sedan come from the chair rather than the place?

a pipe smoking dog posted:

But isn't the chair named after the place?

Guavanaut posted:

I thought it was from Latin or Old Italian for seat/chair/sitting.

Depending on which might make the chair bit in English redundant, like a head of cabbage or a cash box.

e: ^^ Yeah that

Platystemon posted:

Cable Guy posted:

Link...? I'd like to press # to learn more....