Are omissions like "he has a Facebook [account]" an ellipsis of the modern age, or has this always been going on?
Some English speakers omit "account" in conversational speech when referring to their membership in an online service. For example:
- "Here's a link to my Tumblr."
- "I took a break for a while, but I have a Facebook again."
In both cases the word "account" seems to be elided, and "a Tumblr" or "a Facebook" is used as a stand-in to mean "an account or presence with that online service".
The nearest similar example I can think of that comes to mind is something like "I own a Chevy", where it is understood that you mean a car (rather than, say, a Chevrolet-branded tire, or engine, et cetera). The omission feels more natural here, whereas some people bristle at the above examples with online services.
Are there recurring historical examples where a similar effect has occurred with other entities, or is this otherwise a feature of the modern age? Is there a name for this kind of abbreviation effect?
From time immemorial, whenever the specific descriptor becomes common or dominant enough, the more general descriptor can be elided without confusion:
21st century Facebook [account]
20th century Jello [gelatin]
19th century Levi [jean]s
18th century Fahrenheit [scale]
17th century mansard [roof]
16th century china [dishes]
This particular set of examples are due to brand culture. Brand culture is fairly new (mostly because brands as we know them didn't exist in the past and the presence of many makers made the use of brand names unfeasible), though not exactly brand new. Example: the swords made by Gorō Masamune, c.1264–1343 AD, were known by his name and an indicator of which sword it was, i.e. the Fudo Masamune, a sword with an engraving of Fudo Myu-o on it, without references to the item being a sword, as that was already understood.
The key to such ellipses appears to be when a brand takes over a large market share (and thus takes the place of the product in the public eye, as with Coke being used in parts of the US to mean any sort of soda pop), or particularly great qualities inherent in a single brand.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/10/how-brands-were-born-a-brief-history-of-modern-marketing/246012/