45
Original name of the Sony Walkman
(feddit.nu)
Growing up, portable cassette players were always called "freestyles" here. I never knew it was a marketing thing, or that some other countries also objected to the naming.
this is "original research", which means i dicked around on the internet archive for half an hour. it may be wrong.
Very interesting, well done for the research!
What we can surely all agree is that all these names, especially Walkman (Bill Bryson: "it's not a man and it doesn't walk") were terrible.
it's uh... wasei-eigo. it was meant to, quote,
naturally, the marketing agencies in some countries didn't really get it (see also: the Honda Pussy) and suggested different names