English has adopted a range of brand names or trademarks into broader linguistic usage; classic examples are Thermos, Hoover and, more recently, google. However such names have conventionally converted to general nouns or verbs based closely on the concepts themselves. Marmite, by contrast, represents a more unusual example because it functions as an adjective, and has less of a ‘literal’ meaning (i.e. its meaning is projected from a reaction to the product, rather than the product itself).