We’re vexed that our company name is occasionally mispronounced. Not to get all schoolmarmish here, but Embodee is pronounced the same as em-BOD-y, not em-BODE-ee. Merriam-Webster says it aloud for easy aural reference.
Perhaps the mispronunciations are the price of using a branding practice popular among tech firms. The practice: intentionally misspelling a word to make it more memorable, and in cases such as Embodee, also using a word that describes an aspect of what they do.
The dictionary defines the transitive verb embody this way:
To give bodily form to; make corporeal; incarnate; to give definite, tangible, form to; make concrete
That precisely describes what Embodee delivers: virtual 3D images of apparel, footwear, and accessories true to reality.
Maybe one day Embodee will join the lofty ranks of companies and products with famously verbified names. Think Xerox, Superglue, Photoshop, and Tivo. The most famous is Google, an inventive spelling of googol, which means 10 with 100 zeros and reflects the vastness of the company’s search results.
In exploring the ups and downs of brand verbification, Fast Company points out that etymologists call such a shift or conversion of word use anthimeria (an-thi-MER-ee-a).
We’re awaiting our first anthimeria milestone. That’s when someone viewing and customizing a garment using our software platform tells a friend: “Check out my Embodee’d shirt!”