Technology, Travel and Everything ElseHybrid as a buzzword
December 17, 2010
Since the introduction of hybrid cars as a more efficient version of the standard variety, it’s interesting to see how the word hybrid has become associated with efficiency or new things in general. I’ve noticed the following products marketed using the term ”hybrid”:
- Water heaters
- A line of tablet computers by Dell
- Asus’ Superhybrid engine (A laptop power saving technology)
- Fruits and vegetables
As an adjective, Wikitionary defines hybrid as “consisting of diverse ‘hybridized‘ components” (where hybridized means “combined”). Aside from the automotive associations, there’s no inherent meaning of economy or improvement of any kind. On an aside, “hybrids” in the automotive sense are nothing new. The first Diesel-electric, dual-conversion locomotives were in use in the US as early as 1917.
So I guess I’m not really hating on “hybrid” as a marketing term in general, because most things described as such actually are (by the adjective definition), I just think it’s interesting that it’s taken off recently, especially in the “off-label” economy-related meanings.
Where have you seen the word “hybrid” lately?
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