2002 ADS Word of the Year

1 February 2003

At its annual meeting in January, the American Dialect Society (ADS) selects its Word of the Year for the previous year. This word (or phrase) is a term that for whatever reason had special resonance in that year. The words and phrases selected are not necessarily new coinages (in fact they usually are not), but they are terms that have recently come to prominence. In addition to the Word of the Year, other categories of terms are also voted upon. This was the 13th year that the ADS has been honoring such words and phrases.

So this month, instead of our usual offering of a Word of the Month, we will take a look at the ADS nominations and selections for Word of the Year.

The ADS voting for 2002 Word of the Year was held in Atlanta on 3 January 2003. Some sixty-odd ADS members were on hand and voted. Their choice for 2002 Word of the Year, receiving 38 votes, was weapons of mass destruction and its abbreviation WMD. (If you will recall, this was A Way With Words selection for Word of the Month back in December.) This noun phrase refers to nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and is often extended to radiological weapons. It is also used metaphorically to refer to other devices and actions that kill large numbers of people, albeit slowly through attrition. Landmines are sometimes referred to as weapons of mass destruction and recently Senator Carl Levin referred to the starvation of the North Korean people as a weapon of mass destruction. The term dates to 1937, originally referring to the bombing of cities from the air. It came into the jargon of the arms control community in the early 1960s and exploded into public consciousness this past year.

Honorable Mentions
Other nominees for 2002’s Word of the Year were:

Google, v., to search the Web using the search engine Google for information on a person or thing (11 votes). The verb came to prominence in 2002, but dates to at least 2000. The search engine was named after the mathematical term googol, with the spelling changed for trademark purposes.

Blog, n., clipping of web-log, a website of personal events, comments, and links (6 votes). The term dates to 2000. It is also used as verb meaning to create or maintain such a site.

Amber alert, n., public announcement of a missing child (4 votes). The term dates to 1996. It is named after Amber Hagerman, who had been abducted and killed while riding her bicycle in her Arlington, Texas neighborhood that year. It was thought that she might have been saved had there been a system in place to rapidly notify police and the public of the details of missing children.

Regime change, n., forced change in leadership of a country (3 votes). A jargon term in reference to Iraq, the term dates to 1998; although it can be found earlier in other contexts.

Special Categories
ADS also votes to give special notice to words in particular categories. The categories, winners, and nominees for 2002 are:

Most likely to succeed: blog (30 votes). Other nominees were: Amber alert (20); Axis of _____ (8); and teen angstrel, an angst-ridden popular singer (1).

Most useful: google (verb) (60 votes). Other nominees (none received any votes) were: dataveillance, surveillance using computer data, a term that dates to 1989; the prefix war-, referring to hackers finding locations for unauthorized access to wireless computer networks, as in wardriving, driving around neighborhoods searching for wireless networks, or warchalking, marking of buildings where wireless access is available, the prefix dates to 2002 (from wardialing, the old hacker practice of dialing all phone numbers in an area in a search for computer connections, 1990); and my big fat ______, meaning like no other, extremely, a term popularized by the play and movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Most creative: Iraqnophobia, strong fear of Iraq (38 votes in a runoff), coined in a David Letterman monologue in August 1990 and revived this year. The other candidate in the runoff was walking piñata, a person subject to relentless criticism, the term dates to 1998 and came to prominence recently in reference to Trent Lott (25 votes). Other nominees in the first vote: dialarhoea, inadvertent dialing of a cell phone in a pocket or handbag (8); 201(k), a 401(k) retirement account ruined by stock losses (8); and apatheist, someone who either believes that God or gods exist but are not of any use or someone who does not care enough to make up their mind about the existence of a deity. This one dates to 1999 (7 votes).

Most unnecessary: wombanization, feminization, from Alexander Barnes’ The Book Read Backwards: The Deconstruction of Patriarchy and the Wombanization of Being (46 votes). Other nominees: Saddameter, meter on television showing daily likelihood of war with Iraq (13); virtuecrat, person both politically correct and morally righteous (10); black tide, large-scale oil pollution at sea (0).

Most outrageous: Neuticles, fake testicles for neutered pets, dates to 1995 (40 votes in a runoff). Other candidate in the runoff: grid butt, marks left on the buttocks by fishnet pantyhose (30). Other candidates in the first vote: sausage fest, slang term for a party with more males than females, dates to 1993 (7); diabulimia, loss of weight by a diabetic skipping insulin doses (3); Botox party, a party at which a physician injects guests with Botox (2); comprendo-challenged, unable to understand the U.S. Constitution (0).

Most euphemistic: regime change (38 votes). Other nominees: V-card, slang term for virginity, as in playing the V-card, 1999 (14); newater, sewage water purified and recycled into the fresh water system (7); unorthodox entrepreneur, a Vancouver term for a panhandler, prostitute, or drug dealer (4); Enronomics, fraudulent business and accounting practices (1); dirty bomb, conventional bomb laced with radioactive material, from 1993 (0).

In 2001, the special category Most Inspirational was created to incorporate Todd Beamer’s Let’s roll!, uttered just before attacking the hijackers of United Flight 93 on 11 September 2001. For 2002, President Bush’s embetterment as in the embetterment of mankind was proposed as justifying another Most Inspirational, but it was rejected 45 votes to 12. Another candidate for Most Inspirational was proposed, grid butt, the runner-up in the Most Outrageous category, but the chair, who favored embetterment, arbitrarily ruled it out of order. A category of Bushisms was suggested for future years.

Past WOTYs
While the ADS is a scholarly organization, the Word of the Year contest is strictly for fun. It is not a serious linguistic endeavor and the linguists of ADS do not have any special skill at predicting what words will succeed. Their track record in this regard is decidedly mixed. Last year the term 9-11 claimed both the Word of the Year and Most Likely to Succeed prizes and it looks as if the term is here to stay, at least as long as the events are in living memory. Often the Word of the Year is a term that aptly sums up major events of the year, but which may not have lasting currency in the language. The words are usually distinctly American in reference and usage, but this is appropriate given that it is the American Dialect Society.

Other past Words of the Year are:

Chad (2000), a word that represents the events of the last two months of the year well, but which is due to become a linguistic footnote due to technology change.

Y2K (1999), like chad it represents its year well, but had little future currency. In 1999, ADS also voted on Word of the Century, jazz, and Word of the Millennium, she. With a greater historical perspective, the significance of these last two choices is obvious.

e- (1998), which edged out sexual relations, as in “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” in a 31-28 run-off vote.

Millennium bug (1997), a term that would have a shelf life of two more years.

Mom (1996), as in soccer mom, waitress mom, and minivan mom. Soccer mom is still with us; the others are forgotten.

1995 was a tie between World Wide Web and Newt, a verb meaning to make aggressive changes as newcomer. The latter is from the name of the then Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich. It spawned several short-lived words like Newt World Order and Newtspeak before they all died a quick and justified death. The World Wide Web has had a much more significant and lasting impact on all our lives than Newt Gingrich did.

1994 was also a tie, this time between cyber and morph, meaning to change shape. Both seem to have slipped into widespread usage rather unobtrusively.

Information Superhighway (1993). The thing survived and boomed; the name did not.

Not! (1992), it was trendy word that year.

Mother of all ____ (1991), again a phrase much used that year but not often afterwards.

Bushlips (1990), meaning insincere political rhetoric. Everyone remembers the quotation, “Read my lips. No new taxes,” but who remembers Bushlips?

The category of Most Likely to Succeed has also had mixed success itself. Seemingly successful predictions (the contest has not been in existence long enough to gauge success definitively) are DVD (1997), World Wide Web (1995) rollerblade (1991), and notebook PC (1990). These will probably remain with us at least as long as the technology in question is relevant.

Others have had mixed success. The Most Likely to Succeed for 2000 was muggle, which has not gained lasting currency outside the confines of the Harry Potter universe. In 1999 the winner of this category was dot-com—a term that has done better than the companies it represents. The term for 1998 was the prefix e-. While words like e-mail and e-commerce are still going strong, the prefix has largely ceased to be productive and is not generating new words. And in 1992 the term judged Most Likely to Succeed was snail mail. It is hanging in there, but seems to be fading.

And yet others judged likely to succeed are all but forgotten. 1996’s drive-by survives in the original drive-by shooting, but all the other slang senses like drive-by viewing and drive-by surgery are dead. Similarly Infobahn (1996), quotative (1993), and rightsizing (1990) are long since forgotten.

The full lists of choices and nominees for previous years, dating back to 1990, can be found on the ADS website, http://www.americandialect.org/woty.html.

Prescriptivist's Corner: Confusing Word Pairs (Part 1)

1 January 2003

English has many pairs of words that are spelled almost identically or have meanings that are almost, but not quite synonymous. These words are often confused and writers frequently use one when they mean to use the other.

So here, with the help of our favorite loan shark, Vinnie “The Squid” Calamari, we present some of these word pairs and examples of how to use them correctly.

Adverse/averse. The first means negative or hostile (cf. adversary) and is usually used to describe things, not people; the second means disinclined or reluctant and since it denotes feeling or opinion can only be applied to people. If you are risk averse, then the potential adverse consequences of not paying a loan back to Vinnie are enough to dissuade you from taking his money in the first place.

Ambiguous/equivocal. They both mean vague or capable of multiple meanings and interpretations, but ambiguous connotes no information about intent. An ambiguous statement can be accidental or intentional, while equivocal connotes that the statement is intended to be vague. Because of his bad handwriting, Vinnie’s message was ambiguous. Vinnie’s statement to the grand jury was equivocal.

Amoral/immoral. Amoral is used to mean without regard for ethics or outside the sphere of morality, while immoral is used to denote evil or depravity, the polar opposite of moral. Because his customers were all adults who willingly took his money knowing the consequences of failing to repay, Vinnie considered his business to be amoral, but he thought those who hurt innocent children were immoral.

Auger/augur. An auger is a drill. Augur is a verb meaning to predict or a noun for one who predicts the future. Things do not augur well if you see Vinnie approaching with an auger in his hand.

Blatant/flagrant. The first is used to denote something that is obvious or glaring. The second denotes something that is reprehensible and shocking. Telling Vinnie that you will have the money next week is a blatant lie. Taking the money out of your children’s college fund to repay Vinnie is a flagrant act.

Breach/breech. A breach is a gap, hole, or break, while breech refers to the rear or lower portion of something. Henry V charged once more into the breach. A breech birth is a baby delivered feet first. Vinnie owed him a few swift kicks in the breeches for breaching the loan agreement.

Capital/capitol. A capitol is a building where a legislature gathers. Capital is used for all other senses. Vinnie made his first loan on the steps of the capitol in Trenton, the capital of New Jersey.

Climactic/climatic. The high point in a play or movie is climactic. A change in the weather patterns is climatic.

Compose/Comprise. These are opposites. Compose means to make up, to constitute. Comprise means to contain. The Five Families compose the New York Mob. The New York Mob comprises the Five Families. The phrase comprised of is always incorrect.

Continual/continuous. Continual means frequently recurring, intermittent. Continuous is uninterrupted, without let up. Vinnie stayed at the phones taking Superbowl bets continually for a week. Vinnie stayed at the phones taking Superbowl bets continuously until he had to go the bathroom.

Discreet/discrete. These are very often confused. Discreet means to be cautious, to do something without fanfare or publicity. Discrete means separate or distinct. Vinnie kept his loan sharking and bookmaking businesses discrete from one another. With all the cops and judges on the payroll, Vinnie did not need to be discreet, but he still was.

Flack/flak. A flack is a public relations executive. To flack is to engage in public relations. Flak is anti-aircraft fire, either real or figurative. Vinnie liked to be discreet, so Tony came in for a lot of flak when he started to flack the loan business.

Flounder/founder. Both are metaphorically used to mean failure, but the literal meanings, and the images they evoke, are different. Flounder means to flail about, like a fish out of water. Founder means to sink. Tony floundered about the track, losing bet after bet, as he foundered in a sea of debt.

Gantlet/gauntlet. A gantlet is a form of punishment where the victim runs down a line of people who beat him with blunt objects. A gauntlet is a glove. Many people ignore the difference and use gauntlet for both. But there are still some who make the distinction, so be careful when writing or saying running the gauntlet lest someone who still makes the distinction thinks less of you. Tony threw down the gauntlet, challenging Vinnie by refusing to pay back the loan. So, Vinnie made him run the gantlet.

Historic/historical. Something historic is famous or notable. Something historical pertains to the study of the past. Vinnie consulted the historical ledgers to see if this Superbowl’s take was historic in proportions.

Impracticable/Impractical. Doing something impractical is more trouble than it is worth. Something impracticable cannot be done at all. Vinnie quit the numbers business when he realized competing with the state lottery was impractical. Vinnie does not like to injure customers too badly because it is impracticable to collect from a seriously injured man.

Jerry-built/jury rigged. Something that is jerry-built is poorly made. Something that is jury-rigged is hastily repaired or made to work from ad hoc materials. Jerry-built is shoddy construction. Jury-rigged is an emergency and temporary measure. The jerry-built blackjack that Vinnie had bought on the cheap came apart on the first head he cracked. Vinnie jury-rigged a blackjack with two rolls of quarters and an old sock.

Lectern/podium. A lectern is a stand on which a speaker places his or her notes. A podium is a raised platform on which stand the speaker and the lectern.

Loath/loathe. If one is loath to do something, one does not want to. If one loathes something, then one does not like it. Loath is an adjective, to loathe a verb. Vinnie was loath to take bets on hockey, a sport he loathed.

Mantel/Mantle. A mantel is a shelf or structure above or around a fireplace. A mantle is cloak or robe and is frequently used metaphorically to mean a quality that is inherited or bestowed. Mantle is also a geologic term for the regolith or interior of a planet. Vinnie placed the Smith and Wesson on the mantel. Vinnie assumed the mantle of leadership when the old don died.

Naval/navel. Naval pertains to the navy, navel to the belly. The naval officer was slow to pay up, so Vinnie hit him in the navel to speed him along.

Oral/verbal. Oral refers to something that is spoken. Verbal refers to something expressed in words, either spoken or written. Vinnie preferred to give oral instructions, leaving no paper trail. The man ignored Vinnie’s verbal warnings; now it was time for Vinnie to demonstrate that he expected to be paid back.

Pail/pale. A pail is a bucket. Pale means ashen or lacking color. The man became pale when he realized what Vinnie was going to use pail for.

Presumptive/presumptuous. The first means expected. The second means to be impudent or bold. Vinnie is the presumptive heir to the don. To ask Vinnie for a decrease in the interest rate would be presumptuous.

Rack/wrack. Wrack is an archaic verb meaning to ruin or destroy. It is also a noun meaning the remnants after destruction. It is almost never used anymore except in the idiomatic phrase wrack and ruin. Rack is a verb meaning to put under strain, to torture. Vinnie had to rack his brain to think of a reason why he should not bring wrack and ruin upon the recalcitrant client.

Servicing/serving. To service means to install and maintain. To serve means to perform a useful task for someone. These are frequently confused in business writing. You often see servicing the customer when it should be serving the customer. Vinnie’s loan business served the entire tri-state area. Vinnie’s regular customers knew they had best keep up servicing their loans.

American Speech: Southern Speech

1 January 2003

Perhaps no American dialect is more famous or recognizable than the Southern dialect. It certainly covers the widest swath of territory of any of the variants on standard America speech.

First, let us dispense with the myth that Southerners speak with a purer form of English, one that is closer to Elizabethan English and the language of Shakespeare than any other dialect. Some Southerners love to tell tales of how Elizabethan English is preserved in the backwoods and hollows of the South, living relics of the original English settlers. Utter bunk. Southern speech is no closer to Elizabethan English than is Brooklynese or Australian. Sure, it shares some common features with Elizabethan English that are not found in other dialects, but it has just as much that is not in common with the language of Shakespeare.

Furthermore, the South is not a linguistically uniform region. It is much too large for that. There are variations on pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary within the region. But there are enough similarities in the speech of the region that we can deal with it as a single dialect with some minor regional variations.

The heart of the South stretches from Virginia to eastern Texas, and includes the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana (although Louisiana has so many other influences and unique traits that we’ll deal with it in a separate article). But the Southern dialect extends further north and inland from these states, into the region known to linguists as the South Midlands or Upper South. This border region includes the Appalachian states of western North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas, as well as Maryland, eastern Oklahoma, Missouri, and the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Some even place western Pennsylvania, centered on the Pittsburgh dialect, in the South Midlands.

Several areas of the South have all but lost the distinctive Southern speech patterns in recent years, most notably southern Florida. Northern accents are now dominant in South Florida, with Cuban and other Hispanic accents coming a close second. Northern Florida, however, still retains the Southern speech patterns. A smaller, but politically important, region that has lost its Southern speech patterns is Washington, DC and the surrounding suburbs of Maryland and Northern Virginia. Once linguistically part of the South, the influx of northerners and westerners in the post-WWII years has eradicated the native Southernisms. You do not have to go far from the city, however, to hear Southern speech patterns again. Travel the 60 or so miles to Baltimore to the north or Fredericksburg to the south and you will again hear Southernisms.

Southern Pronunciation
The Southern dialect is a non-Rhotic one, like that of New York or New England, dropping the /r/ sound after vowels. So in the South far becomes /fah/ and river becomes /rivuh/. This dropping of the Rs is much less common in the South Midlands, where the Rs tend to be pronounced. And the Midlands even goes a step further and adds an /r/ sound in words like wash, pronounced /warsh/, and the nation’s capital is pronounced /warshington/. And in the Appalachians, words that end in a long O are likely to have an /r/ added to the end. Hence hollow is pronounced /holler/ and meadow is /meder/.

Another consonant change occurs in one particular word, greasy. In the South, the /s/ sound is pronounced as a /z/, /greazy/. Strangely, the root noun grease is still pronounced with the /s/. This pronunciation of greasy extends well into the North, but it is centered in the South.

Southern speech also clips the /g/ sound from the suffix –ing. This is hardly unique to the South, but it is characteristic of the dialect.

The other pronunciation differences are chiefly in the vowel sounds. In the South, the long I sound becomes /ah/. Tire is pronounced /tahr/ and hide becomes /hahd/.

Also, the short E is pronounced as a short I. So, pen and pin are pronounced alike. This has given rise to the word inkpen, which Southerners use for the sake of clarity. Also, both these short vowels are lengthened or drawn out in Southern dialect. Pen is not pronounced simply as /pin/, but rather as /piy-un/. The drawing out also occurs with the short O. Hence dog is /daw-ug/.

Another vowel sound that is different is /oy/. In the South this becomes a long O when it is followed by an L. So, boy is pronounced /boy/, but boil becomes /bowl/. Similarly, the short O in the word on also becomes long, pronounced as /own/.

Southerners also have a habit of inserting a /y/ sound before /ew/. All Americans do this with some words, such as few, /fyew/, or music, /myewzic/, but Southerners do it generally when the vowel sound is followed by an /n/, /d/, or /t/. So, a Yankee would watch the evening news, but a Southerner watches the /nyews/, Duke University in North Carolina is /dyewk/ not /dook/, and the day of the week is /tyewsday/.

The Appalachians is home to several distinct pronunciations. People from this region often insert an a- in front of verbs, such as “He likes to go a-hunting.” Note that the a- is only used for verbs beginning with a consonant, ending in –ing, and that are accented on the first syllable. The a- is not used with gerunds. One would not say, “He enjoys a-hunting.”

Another insertion common to the region is an /h/ sound in it and ain’t, so they become /hit/ and /hain’t/.

Also in the Appalachians, the short A sound is often lengthened. Chance is pronounced /chaince/, for example.

Southern Grammar
The Southern dialect also has several distinct grammatical and syntactical formations. One is the use of multiple auxiliary verbs. In most of the United States, only one auxiliary verb (e.g., may, might, can, could, would) can be used with the main verb. But in the South, you are permitted to use as many as three. “I might should better try” and “you may might can get one” are legitimate sentence structures.

Also in the South, the word it is often used at the beginning of sentences where other speakers of English would use the word there. William Faulkner writes in Light in August, “It ain’t any human in this country going to dispute them hens with you.”

The South Midlands also has some distinct grammatical structures. In much of this region the verb to be is not required with the verbs needs and wants. Hence, “the car needs washed” and “the dog wants walked” are considered acceptable sentences.

Those from the Midlands also use the adverb anymore in a unique fashion. Throughout the English-speaking world, people use anymore in negative contexts such as, “he does not go there anymore.” But in the South Midlands, people will use it in a positive context, “he likes to go there anymore.”

Southern Words and Phrases
The premier Southernism is y’all. No other word characterizes Southern speech more than this one, which is why we lead off this section with it instead of placing at the end where it belongs alphabetically. Y’all is simply a contraction of you all and is used as a plural form of you. The contraction dates to the latter half of the 19th century, being found no earlier than 1886, although the full form you all has been a part of Southern speech since 1824. Some Southerners claim that y’all is actually a singular form and that to make the plural you must say y’allses or all y’all. Most however hold that it is a plural and y’all is never used to refer to one person, although a single person may be addressed as y’all if the reference is to a larger group (e.g., “How y’all doing?” is an inquiry about one’s family).

The following words and phrases can be found in Southern speech. If no particular state is listed, the term can be generally be found throughout the region.

Aim, v., is a Southern verb that means to plan, to intend. Formerly, it was used throughout the United States, but has fallen into disuse elsewhere.

Airish, adj., is another word that once was widespread, but is now chiefly found in the American South and in Scots. It means chilly or cool.

Arab, n., is a term for a street peddler or huckster in Baltimore.

Bad to, adj., means prone to, inclined, as in “he is bad to use whiskey.” Also found as bad for. (Appalachians, especially eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina)

Banker, n., to a North Carolinian does not mean someone who works in a bank. Rather it means a resident of the Outer Banks. The term dates to 1750.

Batter bread, n., is a Virginia term for cornbread made with eggs and milk. It is pronounced /baddy-bread/.

Bawlmer, prop. n., is the native pronunciation of Baltimore. Also Balamer.

Biggity, adj., means vain, haughty, self-important.

Blessing, n., is a reprimand, a scolding. It can also be used as a verb, to bless or to bless out means to scold.

Bog, n., is a rice dish. The name is usually formed with a type of meat that is mixed with rice, as in chicken bog or squirrel bog. (South Carolina)

Branch, n., is a small river or stream. The term dates to the 17th century and the early settlement of the Southern colonies. Hence branch water is water from a stream rather than a well.

Bucket, n., is a Southern word for a pail or water vessel that has become widespread throughout the United States. Of course it is not exclusively Southern, being found in many British works (including Shakespeare), but American usage was originally restricted to the South.

Butter bean, n., is what the rest of America calls a lima bean. The term dates from 1821.

Carry, v., means something different in the South than it does in the rest of the country. It means to escort, lead, or accompany. So the 1878 song “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” is a request for a guide and companion on a journey home, not a request for a lift.

Cascade, v., means to vomit in South Carolina.

Case, adj., is a South Carolinian term for a single coin. A case quarter is a 25-cent piece, not two dimes and nickel. The etymology is unknown, but is perhaps from the idea that the value is in a single container or unit.

Chap, n., is a young child, or baby. Also chappie.

Chunk, v., means to throw or toss. It dates from 1834. The verb is from the noun meaning a block or lump of something. The noun chunk, in turn, is a variant of chuck, whose verb form also means to throw, only in the Northeast US.

Coke, n., can mean any carbonated beverage in the South, not just Coca-Cola. This generalized usage of the brand name is fairly recent, dating only to 1960 or so.

Come here, n., is a Virginia term for someone who moves into a community, as opposed to a native. The term is rather recent, dating to the mid-70s.

Cooter, n., is a type of freshwater turtle found in South Carolina and Georgia. It is pronounced with the short /oo/, as in cook.

Cowlick, n., is a lock of hair that is unruly or standing up, as if one’s head had been licked by a cow.

Curious, adj., is applied to persons in the South who are strange, odd, or eccentric.

Curl, n., is a nearly circular bend in a river (Virginia).

Dinner on the grounds, n., is an outdoor gathering, often connected with a church meeting, where food is brought and shared. Elsewhere it would be known as a covered dish or potluck meal. (Throughout the South, but especially Kentucky)

Dinner, n., in the South is served at midday. If the main meal of the day is served at the end of the afternoon it is called supper.

Directly, adv., is a Southern Janus word. That is it has two contradictory meanings. It can mean immediately, or it can mean after a while.

Doodly-squat, n., is a Southernism meaning something of little or no value. It is a euphemism.

Evening, n., like dinner, has different temporal sense in the South. Evening is synonymous with afternoon.

Fall off, v.phr., is a Southern term meaning to lose weight, especially as the result of an illness. In the Northeast US, this would be to fall away.

Feisty, adj., is Southern word meaning aggressive, touchy, or excitable. Feist is also used as a noun for a small dog. The term is from the archaic fist, meaning a fart or foul stench. The term was apparently applied as an epithet to curs and acquired the current meaning through association with the excitable nature of small dogs.

Fetch, v., is a word found chiefly in the South midlands meaning to get or retrieve.

Fix, v., to intend, to plan. To most Americans, fixing means to take physical measures to accomplish some goal, but to a Southerner, it means to have the intention of doing something. It dates to the first half of the 19th century.

Frogsticker, n., is a knife, especially one with a long blade. It is also known as a pigsticker or toadsticker.

Hey, int., word of greeting. Hey is originally a Southernism, but is no longer restricted to its place of origin in the Deep South, being found throughout the United States nowadays. This spread is a relatively recent phenomenon. As late as the 1950s, Alabama-born baseball player Willie Mays’s trademark greeting of ”Hey!” was considered such an oddity in New York that he became the “Say Hey” Kid.

Hollow, n., is a stream in a valley, or the valley itself. (Appalachians)

Hon, n., is a term of address used throughout the South and the entire United States for that matter. But it has a special association with the city of Baltimore where it is especially common and a term of civic pride.

Hopping John, n., is a dish traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day for good luck in South Carolina and Georgia. It consists of black-eyed peas, rice, and bacon. It is also known as happy Jack, happy John, and hop-in John. The name, and the dish, is probably from the French West Indies and is a mispronunciation of pois pigeon (pigeon peas).

Hull, n., is a word for eggshell in Georgia.

If’n, conj., is a Southern form of if. It is also spelled iffen, effen, and ef’n.

Jackleg, adj., is a Southern adjective meaning inept, unprofessional, or dishonest. It is usually applied to members of a particular occupation. You do not, for example, want to take your car to a jackleg mechanic. The term dates to 1837. It may be from an older term, a jackleg knife or jackknife, perhaps first applied to carpenters who used jackleg knives. Jackleg knife dates to 1786.

Least, adj., is used in the Appalachians to mean youngest or smallest. If you are the least child, you are the baby of the family.

Lightbread, n., is leavened bread, as opposed to biscuits. The term dates to 1821 and comes from the bread having risen. Its also known as loafbread in parts of the South, a term that is quite old, dating to 1650.

Like to, v.phr., is used by Southerners to denote something that almost happened but did not. “He liked to have died,” does not mean he is suicidal; it means that he had a brush with death. The usage dates to 1808.

Mango, n., is what they call a green pepper in the Midlands. The term comes from the fact that green peppers were often pickled, as were real mangoes in the days before refrigeration and fast transportation to market.

Mash, v., is a Southern verb meaning to push or apply pressure. You mash the buttons in elevators. The verb is often used in a phrase with down, in, or on. It dates to 1845.

Nary, adj., means neither, no, or not a. Etymologically, it is a variant of ne’er a, and comes from English and Irish dialectical speech. The expression nary a one is common throughout the United States, adding the etymologically redundant indefinite article. In the South, speakers do not reinsert the indefinite article, keeping it nary one.

Obliged, adj., is a Southern adjective meaning indebted or required. The phrase much obliged is often used to mean thank you.

Poke, n., is relic from Middle English that has managed to survive in the South and in some other English dialects around the world. It means a bag or sack and is perhaps best known in the phrase pig in a poke. The word poke appears to be fading from use.

Polecat, n., is what is known elsewhere in country as a skunk. It is not the same creature as European polecats.

Razorback, n., is a term usually associated with Arkansas, but this breed of pig is found throughout the South.

Reckon, v., means to think, suppose, or opine. It is found across the United States, but is chiefly associated with the South.

Redlight, n., is what is known as a traffic light elsewhere. In the South you go on a green redlight, prepare to stop on a yellow redlight, and stop on a red redlight.

Shindig, n., is a Kentucky term that has become so widespread that it has lost any association with its original home. It means a party or dance. The origin is unknown, but there is an older Southern sense of shindig meaning a blow to the shins. The word could have undergone some semantic transfer from this older sense.

Snack, n. & v., Like hey, this word for a small amount of food or to eat a small amount of food got its start in the South. It is originally a Briticism that caught on in the South and then spread to the rest of the United States. The sense of food dates to 1757 and is from the older verb meaning to bite or snap.

Suit, n., is used in the South to denote a set of matching items, like a suit of furniture. Elsewhere the term would be suite. This use of suit is a 15th century usage that survives in the South (and is related to the suits in a deck of cards). The term is not used to mean a set of rooms, so a hotel suite might contain a bedroom suit.

Tote, v., means to carry, to haul. Because the verb to carry means something else in the South, another word is needed for this sense. The origin of tote is not known for certain, but it may have been brought to these shores from West Africa by slaves. Tota and tuta are Bantu words meaning to pick up or carry. The word is found in American usage as early as 1676-77.

Up and [verb], v. phr., meaning to do something suddenly and unexpectedly. To up and die is to die unexpectedly.

Want off, phr. v., means want to get off (Midlands).

Book Review: Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words

1 January 2003

Bill Bryson, a writer best known for his humorous travel books but also the author of two books on the English language, has recently produced a usage guide. Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words is an updating of his 1983 Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words and Phrases (now out of print).

In the book, Bryson lists a fair number of words and phrases that are commonly misused, misspelled, or confused. A very good writer in his own right, Bryson’s advice is usually sound and practical, although he does stray a bit into the realm of personal idiosyncrasies and stylistic preferences and the book contains more than its fair share of errors.

Readers may be disappointed by the lack of Bryson’s trademark humor in this work. His travel commentaries are witty and fun reads, but this is much more the prim, proper usage and, though Bryson would probably be loath to say it, style guide.

But beyond the lack of humor, which may be disappointing but is hardly a flaw in a reference book, the central question is whether or not this book is really needed. The market is crowded with usage and style manuals and this one adds little. It is shorter than most and readers would be much better served by buying the more comprehensive Garner’s A Dictionary of Modern American Usage or the classic Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage. Bryson writes in a simpler, more straightforward style than most of the other usage editors and he notes in his introduction that he deliberately omits grammatical jargon. While this may be helpful for someone looking for a quick answer on a particular point of usage, often the in-depth grammatical discussion is what is most useful about these guides and any serious writer should be undaunted by grammatical jargon.

The book also suffers a bit from being a revision. Several recent troublesome words, like proactive, are not to be found and several fairly obscure Briticisms, like the spelling of Sca Fell in the Lake District, remain. Bryson also needs to update his references. He refers to the first edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, but the current one is the fourth (to be fair, the third was current when he was writing this). He also refers to several idiosyncrasies of the original OED that were corrected in the second edition, published in 1989 (e.g., the original OED’s insistence on spelling the poet’s name Shakspere and the acceptable plural forms of compendium). He also continually references Gower’s 1965 updating of Fowler, a fine work for its time but nearly half a century old. These outdated references make one wonder if he is really up on the most current usage.

While Bryson’s advice is usually reasonable, he has a tendency to impose his own stylistic preferences. In one howler, he states “celibacy does not, as is generally supposed, indicate abstinence from sexual relations. It means only to be unmarried.” Well, if a word is “generally supposed” to mean something, then it does mean that. In his introduction he acknowledges that it is consensus that governs English usage, but he ignores that consensus here. If one is writing a theological treatise, then it might be useful to maintain the distinction between celibacy and chastity, but in most other cases the distinction serves no purpose. In several other cases he demands usage of a jargon sense of a word that is at odds with its commonly accepted meaning (e.g., insisting that gendarme is a soldier, not a policeman, that the legal jargon term hanged, rather than hung, is the only acceptable usage for executions, and that the classical sense of nemesis is the only proper one).

Other personal idiosyncrasies that make their way into the book’s pages are his insistence that the spelling barbeque is improper. To be sure, it is not the most common one (which is barbecue) but it is a perfectly acceptable variant. Similarly, his insistence that the pronunciation of buoy must be /boy/ and not /boo ee/ is without foundation.

Other times his wording is sloppy. He says irregardless is not a “real word.” To which I repeat Jesse Sheidlower’s classic retort, “If it’s not a word, what is it? A ham sandwich?” Irregardless is nonstandard and should be avoided in formal writing, but it is a commonly used word. In another entry on not confusing the two US Senators Bob Kerrey and John Kerry, Bryson refers to Bob Kerrey’s Vietnam service where his troops “murdered” innocent civilians. The word Bryson should have used is killed, or at least added an allegedly. Someone with Bryson’s journalistic background should know the distinction between murder and killing and he perhaps should have made this an entry in the book. He is also a bit harsh on writers who, as he says, “misspell” the name Khrushchev, ignoring the difficulties of transliterating from the Cyrillic.

Bryson also makes some technical errors in some entries. He does not seem to understand trademarks and trade names. And in another entry he misses an important lesson on the definitions of mean, median, and average (and leaves mode out of the discussion altogether).

It is worth restating here that overall Bryson gives good, solid advice. The flaws mentioned here, while significant, are not typical of the quality found in the book. The number of useful tips outweighs the number of errors and idiosyncrasies. But the number and frequency of the flaws is, to use Bryson’s own word, troublesome.

Most people will only have room for one usage manual on their bookshelf, and for those this is not the best choice out there. Those who have created a personal library of such books, however, may want to take a look at it.

Hardcover: 224 pages, Broadway Books, ISBN: 0767910427, 1st edition (August 2002), $19.95.

Word of the Month: Brand

1 January 2003

This month, a US Federal District Court judge will rule on whether or not Microsoft has the right to trademark the term Windows. Lindows.com, a maker of Linux computer operating systems, has asked the judge to summarily dismiss a lawsuit against them in which Microsoft claims that Lindows.com is infringing on their trademark and brand. For their part, Lindows.com claims that windows was in common use as a computer term for rectangular graphic user interface displays before 1983 when Microsoft began marketing their Windows brand and that no company has a right to exclusive use of common English words.

As a result, brand is the word of the month. A brand is the name of a product or company, a trademark. By extension, the brand is also the values that customers and the public associate with a product or company. The term comes from the practice of literally branding products, or the casks and crates that contain the product, with a hot iron. The idea of brand as a marketing tool is relatively recent, only dating to 1827. Brand name dates to 1921. Brand image appears in 1958 and brand loyalty a few years later in 1961.

Even more recent is the verb to brand. The sense meaning to burn with a hot iron dates to the 15th century, but the marketing verb is very recent. Branding, to a marketer, is the process of building a positive corporate and product image in the minds of the public.

The word brand is found in Old English and originally meant fire or a burning piece of wood. It is from this that we get to brand, meaning to burn a mark into something. The term brand new also comes from this, being something still hot from the forge or furnace where it was made.

Brands, or at least their verbal and graphical expressions, are one of the three types of intellectual property. The term intellectual property, or as it is often abbreviated IP, only dates to 1845 and is American in origin, although the legal concept of intellectual property is much older. Intellectual property consists of patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Patents (1588) protect physical objects or processes. The term is a clipping of letters patent, which were open letters from the crown conferring some specific right upon an individual, such as the right to exclusively manufacture a product. Copyrights (1735) protect expressions of ideas, verbal, graphical, or musical. Both patents and copyrights extend protection for a limited period.

The third type, trademark (1571), is different. Trademarks, the term coming from the marks placed on a product to identify its manufacturer, are of unlimited duration, but they must be used continuously and must be defended when challenged by competitors.

This last makes trademarks an interesting study in onomastics, or the study of names. Many brand or trade names have interesting histories. Many, perhaps most, come from the names of the inventors. But there are many that do not, acquiring their brand names from any number of odd sources. In the paragraphs that follow, we will discuss a few of these.

Aspirin was originally a trade name used by the German firm Bayer, aspirin is from the German Acetylirte Spirsäure + an -in suffix. The German term is translated as acetylated spiraeic acid, a.k.a. acetylsalicylic acid. The drug was invented by Felix Hoffman in 1897. Bayer obtained the German trademark on aspirin in 1899 and put the product on the market in 1914. Aspirin is still a registered trademark of Bayer in some 90 countries, but not in the United States, France, or Britain. Britain and France, who were fighting a war with Germany at the time, never recognized the trademark at all. When the United States entered the war in 1917, Bayer’s US operations were seized by the government and put up for auction. Bayer’s US plant and trademark were bought by Sterling Drug Company. As a result “Bayer” products sold in the United States were not made by Bayer, at least not until 1994 when Bayer finally bought Sterling and reacquired the right to use its own name in the United States. Aspirin received a further blow in 1921 when the US Supreme Court ruled that it had become the common word for the substance and could no longer be used as a trademark—setting the precedent requiring companies to vigorously defend their trademarks against becoming generic terms.

Audi automobiles are named, in a fashion, after their original manufacturer. August Horsch started his first automobile company in 1899, with the first cars rolling off the production line in 1901. But in 1909, Horsch was forced out of the business by his financial backers and was forbidden to use his name in any new automobile venture. Undeterred, Horsch founded another company, using the Latin translation of his name, Audi, which means to hear. The first Audi cars were produced in 1910.

Cadillac is another eponymous automobile manufacturer, although in this case Cadillac had nothing to with the company or even with automobiles. The Cadillac Motor Car Company began producing cars in 1903. The company took its name from Antoine de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who founded Detroit in 1701. Cadillac is a town in southwest France. The Cadillac company later became part of General Motors.

Castrol motor oil gets its name from a blend of castor and oil. Castor oil was a common base for engine lubricant in the opening decades of the 20th century. Most Americans are probably unaware that the firm is actually British. Castrol was first produced by the Wakefield Motor Oil Company of London in 1909. The company changed its name to that of its product in 1960. Burmah Oil Company bought Castrol in 1966, and BP bought Burmah-Castrol in 2000.

Coca-Cola is generally considered the most valuable brand name in the world. The name was coined in 1886 by Frank Robinson, bookkeeper to John Pemberton, the Atlanta druggist who founded the firm. The name is a combination of two of the drink’s original constituents, extracts from coca leaves and cola nuts. (Fearing backlash by rising anti-drug forces, coca was all but eliminated from the formula by 1902, with only one grain per 400 ounces of syrup. But because Coca-Cola feared charges of false advertising and loss of trademark, these minimal amounts of both coca and cola were kept in the formula until 1929.) Pemberton registered Coca-Cola as a trademark in 1893. Neither portion of the name is considered a trademark on its own, hence there are many soft drinks marketed as colas. Although, courts have ruled that obvious imitations like Cold Cola and Koka Nola are violations of Coca-Cola’s trademark.

The alternate brand name for Coca-Cola, Coke, began life as an informal popular name for the drink. It is attested to as early as 1909. The name became so popular so quickly that by the end of World War I a competitor, the Koke Company, was using a variant on the name to sell a similar soda. Coca-Cola sued Koke for trademark infringement, even though it had never registered the Coke trademark nor used it in marketing. And in 1920 the US Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Holmes, ruled that the name Coke was the property of Coca-Cola and that Koke was guilty of trademark infringement. (Holmes also ruled that the absence, for all practical purposes, of coca extracts in the syrup did not constitute false advertising, paving the way for the complete elimination of coca from the formula a few years later.) The name Coke began appearing on bottles in 1941 and was registered in 1945.

Drambuie’s name has its origins in Scottish history. When the Jacobite rebellion of 1746 collapsed after the Battle of Culloden, the rebellion’s leader, Bonnie Prince Charlie, fled to the Isle of Skye and hid from the English. The next year he sailed for France, leaving Scotland for good. Supposedly, before he left the Young Pretender gave the recipe for his personal liqueur to John MacKinnon of Strathaird in gratitude for MacKinnon’s friendship and help in staying hidden. The MacKinnon family kept the formula and made Drambuie for their personal consumption for 150 years. Then in 1893, Malcolm MacKinnon registered the name Drambuie. The MacKinnons started selling the liqueur in 1910. Drambuie is a combination of the Gaelic dram (drink) and either buidheach (pleasing) or buidh (golden, yellow).

Esso is a representation of the pronunciation of the initials S.O., for Standard Oil. John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in 1868 and within ten years the company controlled 95% of the refining capacity of the United States. In 1911, the US Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil violated anti-trust laws and was broken up into “baby Standards.” Standard Oil of New Jersey inherited the Esso trademark, but was only allowed to use that trademark in the Mid-Atlantic States and overseas. In 1972, Esso changed its name to Exxon in order to market its products across the United States under a single name. The name Esso is still used in some overseas markets and there are a handful of Exxon-owned gas stations in the United States that still use the name Esso in order to keep the trademark alive domestically.

The name Exxon was the result of one of the largest branding efforts in history, an effort that included one of the earliest uses of computers in market research. Over 10,000 suggestions were winnowed down until only Exxon was left. The name was chosen because it was distinctive and yet meaningless.

Frisbee, the flying disk toy, has a name that is shrouded in anecdote, so much so that the origin of the name cannot be determined for certain. We do know that the Wham-O toy company of San Gabriel, California bought the rights to the first commercial disk, the Pluto Platter, in 1955. Two years later, Wham-O changed the name to Frisbee and they registered the trademark two years after that. It is commonly thought that the name is an alteration of the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Legend has it that tossing Frisbie pie tins about was a popular activity on the nearby Yale campus during the 1940s and 50s. But how the name crossed the continent to California is uncertain. It has been suggested that Wham-O founder Rich Knerr stopped at Yale during a Pluto Platter marketing tour and discovered students tossing the Frisbie pie tins. Knerr believed this to be a superior name, changed the spelling to Frisbee, and marketed the toy under that name. Wham-O altered the spelling to avoid trademark infringement on the bakery, but it didn’t really matter as the bakery went out of business the next year.

Hoover is not the name of the inventor of the vacuum cleaner. Rather, William H. Hoover was a businessman who bought the rights to a vacuum invented by a J. Murray Spangler. Spangler, a janitor in an Ohio department store, created a device to make his job easier. Spangler sold the rights to Hoover and disappeared into obscurity. Hoover, who sold his first vacuum cleaner in 1908, got rich. None of this is unusual in the world of business, nor would it be etymologically interesting, except that in Britain to hoover has become a verb meaning to vacuum a rug. Hoover started exporting its vacuum cleaners to Britain in 1912. By 1926, the verb had arisen. The verb has never caught on in the device’s country of origin, being restricted to British use. Although in the 1980s, to hoover became a US slang verb meaning to greedily devour food and, especially, cocaine.

Kodak is a good example of a brand name that was created completely from scratch. It has no intrinsic meaning, nor does it carry associations or allusions to anything else. Kodak is etymologically interesting because its coiner, George Eastman, recorded exactly how he came up with it, a very rare occurrence in the world of word origins. “A trade name must be short,” wrote Eastman, “vigorous, incapable of being misspelled to an extent that will destroy its identity, and, in order to satisfy trademark laws, it must mean nothing. The letter K had been a favorite with me—it seemed a strong, incisive sort of letter. Therefore the word I wanted had to start with K. Then it became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with K. The word Kodak is the result.”

Eastman had formed the Eastman Dry Plate Company in 1881, so called because it produced photographic glass plates with a dry coating of chemicals, as opposed to “wet photography.” Two years later he revolutionized photography by creating the first photographic film, eliminating the need for glass plates. In 1888, his company produced the Kodak camera—the world’s first practical consumer camera. Because of the commercial success of the Kodak, the company changed its name to Eastman Kodak in 1892.

It is only by happenstance that Lego means I study or I assemble in Latin. It was coined in 1934 by Danish carpenter and toy maker Ole Kirk Christiansen. The name is actually from the Danish leg godt, meaning play well. Only afterwards did Christiansen realize the name had positive connotations in Latin. The familiar Lego brick was introduced in 1949.

Listerine is not named after its inventor; rather it is named after Joseph Lister, a British physician who in 1865 became the first to use antiseptics in surgery, sterilizing his instruments with heat and using carbolic acid to clean the wound. Across the pond in the United States, the Warner Lambert Company appropriated his name and first marketed Listerine in 1879 as a general purpose antiseptic, formulated for surgical use. In 1895, it was marketed to dentists. It was not until 1914 that Listerine was sold over the counter—the first commercially available mouthwash. Lister, who lived until 1912, objected to this commercial use of his name. It is not certain whether he objected because he thought commerce was beneath him or because he was never paid for the use of his name.

Maxwell House did not start out as the name of a brand of coffee. Originally, it was the name of a luxury hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1892, a wholesale grocery salesman named Joel Cheek managed to sell his own blend of coffee to the Maxwell House hotel. The coffee served at the hotel gained a local reputation for quality and Cheek began selling the blend elsewhere under the Maxwell House name. In 1928, Cheek changed the name of his company to Maxwell House. The slogan good to the last drop was allegedly first uttered by President Theodore Roosevelt who stayed at the hotel in 1903.

The Mercedes automobile is named after the daughter of Austrian racecar driver Emil Jellinek. He bought a specially modified Daimler Phoenix in 1898 and the following year raced it in the Tour de Nice. It was the fashion in those times for drivers to enter races under a pseudonym, and Jellinek used Monsieur Mercedes, after his nine-year-old daughter. Jellinek won the race and there was considerable interest among other drivers and fans in acquiring a “Mercedes” car. Daimler was happy to oblige by stepping up production and a brand was born. The trademark was registered in 1902.

Mitsubishi is unusual in that the company is actually named after its logo. Mitsubishi means three diamonds in Japanese and the corporate symbol is just that. The company got its start in 1870 as the Tsukomo Shokai shipping company. Three years later it changed its name to Mitsubishi Shokai, the second in long series of name changes. The huge conglomerate was broken up after World War II and now there are many different corporate entities that use the Mitsubishi name, with the automobile manufacturer being the best known in the United States.

Like Coca-Cola, Palmolive gets its name from two constituents of the original product. Milwaukee soap manufacturer B.J. Johnson began selling Palmolive soap in 1898. The bases for his product were palm and olive oils. The soap was a best seller and in 1916 like many companies Johnson changed the corporate name to that of its best-known product. Ten years later, Palmolive merged with the Peet Brothers, a Kansas City soap maker to become Palmolive-Peet. Finally, in 1930, the company merged with the Colgate Company to become Colgate-Palmolive-Peet. In 1953, the company dropped Peet from its name.

Quaker Oats is a rarity, a company that uses religious imagery in its branding. But the company does not and never has had any true association with the Society of Friends (Quakers); they just use the name and a picture of a Colonial-era Quaker. Furthermore, Quakers are not particularly known for eating oatmeal or other breakfast cereals. The Quaker Mill Company was founded in 1877 by Henry Seymour and William Heston. There are two tales as to how the company got its name. One is that Seymour read an article about the Quakers and was impressed by the religion’s values of purity, honesty, and strength. Seymour, who was looking for a corporate name, thought that his company would benefit from those same values. The second story is that Heston saw a picture of William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, and that inspired him to think of positive corporate values and brand equity. The Society of Friends initially objected to the name and even tried, unsuccessfully, to get the US Congress to prohibit the use of religious names and symbols in trademarks. In 1901 the company merged with two other cereal manufacturers to become Quaker Oats. In 2001, the company was bought by PepsiCo, and is now a division of that conglomerate.

Scotch Tape, like Quaker Oats, has no direct connection with its namesake; there is nothing Scottish about it. But in this case the original values associated with the name were not complimentary. In 1925 the 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) Company began producing masking tape for use in painting automobiles. In order to reduce costs, 3M reduced the amount of adhesive on the tape. Unfortunately this resulted in a tendency for the tape to fall off half way through the painting process. Customers derisively started referring to it as “Scotch” tape because 3M was so cheap. The name stuck, even though 3M quickly corrected the deficiency by adding more adhesive. Eventually, 3M gave up fighting the inevitable, registered it as a trademark, and turned it into a brand that connotes quality instead of fiscal prudence.

Velcro was invented in Switzerland in the early 1940s, but the name was not coined until around 1957. The name is a French acronym for velours croché, or hooked velvet.

Xerox is a name that is continually in danger of losing its proprietary status as people use it as a generic name for a photocopy. The process of photocopying was invented by Chester Carlson in 1938. Carlson referred to it as electrophotography in his patent application. In 1947 the Haloid Company acquired the rights to Carlson’s patents and the following year re-dubbed the process xerography, from the Greek xero- (dry) + -ography (as in photography). That same year Haloid also registered the trademark Xerox, using the distinctive two Xs (Cf. Exxon). The Haloid Company changed its name to Xerox in 1961.

Zipper began its life as a trademark of the rubber manufacturer B.F. Goodrich. Goodrich did not invent the slide fastener; they had been in existence since 1893 and had generally been known as hookless fasteners. But in 1923 Goodrich started manufacturing rubber overshoes with a slide fastener, which it dubbed Zipper Boots. Goodrich registered the trademark in 1925. Allegedly it was B.F. Goodrich himself who came up with the name, after the sound the boots made upon being fastened. By 1928, the term zipper was already making its way into generic use. Goodrich sued in an attempt to protect the trademark. It won the case, but the victory was limited to the full term Zipper Boots. Goodrich lost control of the rights to the ordinary zipper.