Home Gudgeon and gist Language Log 'Warm Tips' in the wild

'Warm Tips' in the wild

Language Log 2024-11-22

After having been away for a couple of months, when I returned home, I found this message from Maia Karpovich:

Yesterday, I ordered some 100 watt 'corn bulbs' from Amazon to deal with the darkness in my bedroom. The box came with some 'warm tips' included as an insert.

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To boot, the term 'corn bulb' is interesting linguistically as it has a double meaning–seemingly derived from the original 'chip on board' (CoB) LED arrays used in them, as well as the resemblance of the yellow LED packages on a cylindrical housing to a corn cob. In fact, the older through-mount LEDs bore even more resemblance to corn kernels.

Maia seems to have been attracted by the "warm tips" on the box, a sure sign that Chinglish is lurking nearby, even though there may be no Chinese characters visible, as also here:

Warm-tip byu/ice-drake inengrish

We have encountered the Chinese expression that is behind "warm tip" before.  It is:

Wēnxīn tíshì 溫馨提示 ("gentle reminder") (see "Selected readings" below)

I was more interested in the trademark Fannicoo, which belongs to a company in Shenzhen that offers the following goods and services:

Baby bottle sterilizers; Barbecues and grills; Bath installations; Electric food warmers; Electric torches for lighting; Germicidal lamps for purifying air; Household air cleaners; Lamp bulbs; Lamps; LED luminaires; Light reflectors; Lighting apparatus for vehicles; Lighting apparatus, namely, lighting installations; Rear lights for vehicles; Toilet seats

(source)

Sometimes the company parse-spells its name as "FanNicoo" and sometimes only has one "o" at the end but mostly "oo", even in the same document.  I fell into half a dozen rabbit holes in search of the company's Chinese name, but gave up after half an hour.

 

Selected readings on "warm tips"