brown/black goods

meijin

meijin

Senior Member
Tokyo
Japanese
Hi, the following are from the Collins dictionary.

brown goods
PLURAL NOUN
Brown goods are electrical appliances such as televisions and audio equipment. Compare white goods.
Revenue from brown goods, including televisions and hi-fis, rose nearly 12 per cent.

black goods
in British English
NOUN
business​
electronic goods which are housed in black or dark casings, such as televisions, CD players, etc​
Compare white goods​

So, AE speakers call TVs, audio equipment, etc. "brown goods" and BE speakers call them "brown goods" or "black goods" depending on the person/context? Please see the following examples I created.

1. Why don't we expand the <brown / black> goods section next months? (Conversation between employees at an electronics store)
2. Sales of <brown / black> goods are up about 20% from last year. (Article in a trade magazine)
 
    • Well I've never heard of 'black goods' in BE. We all know 'white goods' as machines in the kitchen (washers, cookers, fridges etc).

    Neither have I heard of 'brown goods' but maybe some American members have?

    It's possible some people in manufacturing industries or shops that stock these goods use these terms, but they are not current.
     
    They’re presumably variations on the now pretty-much obsolete term “white goods”, deriving from the fact that domestic appliances were once all made of white stove enamel. No one outside of the industry would use those terms, or (probably) even know of them.
     
    lingobingo said:
    They’re presumably variations on the now pretty-much obsolete term “white goods”, deriving from the fact that domestic appliances were once all made of white stove enamel. No one outside of the industry would use those terms, or (probably) even know of them.
    Click to expand...
    I would not have said that "white goods" was in any way obsolete. It seems a common enough term to me, even in ordinary English (and even though my cooker happens to be brown). I have never heard of brown or black goods though.
     
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    I don't know of <any color> goods in American English. We do have a "white sale" in which bedding (sheets, blankets, etc) and towels are on sale.
     
    White goods was definitely a term used in American English for refrigerators, stoves and other major appliances but its use has been fading away for years.

    A white sale refers to bedding, etc., as Myridon says.

    I have never heard the term brown goods. We simply call those consumer electronics.
     
    I've heard all three, but that's just because I occasionally listen to the business news on BBC Radio. White goods has been by far the most common since about 1980 (see Google Ngram Viewer) whereas in America its heyday was in the 1920s. Perhaps someone can explain that?

    The British term for houshold linens is either simply that, or just whites.
     
    If you said just “whites” to me, I wouldn’t associate it with sheets and towels, but would recall struggling to get the grass stains out of men’s and boys’ cricket whites before the days of stain removers that actually work! :D
     
    I, like the others, am unfamiliar with these terms. I was familiar with the black one meaning either black market or boycotted goods but not electronics. I used to have an impressve stack before digital, but never referred to them as "black goods". It seems it was a term used by some of those in the business but the ony term I know of there is "electronics" and such goods have been around a long time - almost as long as I have:)
    Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
    black BRIT (of goods, jobs, works, etc) being subject to boycott by trade unionists, esp in support of industrial action elsewhere
    Click to expand...
    Random House does have brown gods but marks it as communications/business
    brown′ goods′, Communications, Business electronic machines, as television sets, stereos, and audio or video recorders, that are often finished in brown.
    Click to expand...
     
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    I have never heard these terms.

    I did hear the term "grey goods" in Montreal English used to describe electronics that weren't being sold through 100% legitimate retail channels. 25 years ago you could buy "refurbished" electronics that appeared 100% new in original packaging, from small shops downtown. I assume they were returned as defective and then fixed and sold? Not exactly black market, and not stolen and resold. But not totally legitimate in some way.
     
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