h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wonder if anybody else knows of any more instances where common words today have had their origins from their inventors or instigators.

I have three, Boycott, named after Charles Boycott an estate manager in Ireland, when the tenants refused to pay rent as a protest against him, the action was called after him.

Shrapnel, named after Henry Shrapnel an English Artillery officer who invented that particular artillery shell.

The Guillotine, named after the French physician Joseph-Ingace Guilloin, its inventor.

Gedge

Wellington,Cardigan, Raglan, Sandwich,Mackintosh, Tarmac(adam),Hoover,Biro. But these are all boring and old (sorry). Can you think of anything more up-to-date?

Lynch-mobs got their name from somebody called Lynch who was actually against mob justice.

Oh, and Hoover didn't invent the vacuum cleaner. It's just the name of a company who had the wisdom and foresight to buy the rights to the product. As it was one of the first companies to go into mass-production with the device, the name stuck.

Chauvinism got its name from a French bloke called Chauvin, who was treated badly by Napolean, but would nevertheless hear nothing against him.

Silhouettes also got their name from an actual person.

Not forgetting the Marquis de Sade

He was only a Count (or Comte, to be exact), but everybody calls him the Marquis. Although why he should be named after a tent I have no idea!

Words, words, words...do you mean nouns or adjectives, or...what?

Orwellian, Hitchcockian spring to mind as simple modifiers.

But what about scientists whose names become units of something they researched (Joule, Celcius, Watt, Faraday, Hertz - the first man to study the economics of car rental)?

Then there are, of course, the nouns. Hoover and Biro have already cropped up. What about David Ulux, the inventor of one application emulsion paint?

Finally, there are the (largely modern day) names that have out-and-out plugged their wares. Dyson is the modern Hoover (I've even heard Hoover's Dyson rip-off referred to as a 'Dyson'). Branson is another, a euphemism for a quick one off the wrist.

PS - I think M. Guillotine may actually have been a victim of his own success.

PPS - smonth

Hello Truffy,

Our paths have already crossed on the RSVP forum. Was David Ulux really the inventor of one-coat emulsion? The reason I ask is that literally this morning I was finishing off a small painting job with Dulux enamel and pondering on the derivation of the name.

I think M Guillotine was fortunate to have the contraption named after him, since something like it was in use for centuries (Northern England, Scotland) before he made it notorious.

Why are you dazed and confused, if of course you don't mind me prying? And sorry to be a pest, but your pps - what is 'smonth'? Is that an approximation of the sound of a head being severed at the neck by a guillotine?

Regards,

Walter of Colne.

Hiya Walter, Sorry about Mr Ulux - bad joke on my part. Don't wish to mislead. I was right about Richard Branson though, he's a world class w*nker :-) M Guillotine may have been fortunate to have his masterpiece named after him, but in the dark recesses of my mind I seem to recall he lost his head over it ;-) As for 'smonth', it is the word of the week. Useful because it rhymes with 'month' (http://www.h2g2.com/F16034?thread=64896 and my homepage explain). I haven't found a meaning for it, hence its isolation as a PPS, but by getting it used I'm hoping that a meaning will crop up. Other words which are currently looking for homes are 'burple' (rhymes with 'purple') and 'borange' (does similar honours for 'orange'). So all you Internet poets out there, get using these new and useful words.

Hi Truffy,

Shame about David Ulux really, it was a great make-up - I think I may use it anyway. Burple is a fine word indeed. You are quite right about Guillotine. And sorry to ask (a) (again) why are you dazed and confused and (b) (seriously) who, pray tell, is Richard Branson, and why is he a tugger? Take care,

Walter.

Walter,

Thanks for asking after my state of mind, I'm dazed and confused because (a) that's my normal state , and (b) because some of the threads here are very bizarre. Virtual pubs and coffee houses? Strange!

As for Richard Branson, I'm surprised that there's someone on this planet that hasn't heard of him! You are lucky!! He's a most shameless self-promoter. He started off in a big way by setting up the Virgin Record label, but has since branched out into Virgin this that and everything else (airlines, railways, cola, vodka, investments/pensions). You name it, he's done it. But always with a fanfare and lots of publicity. Like racing to circumnavigate the world in a balloon. 'Cept when he lost, he couldn't just send the guy who succeeded a telegram of congratulations could he? Oh no, he had to go there and do it in public, with the cameras 'round. Almost as if he couldn't stand not being in the limelight, even if it's reflected glory from someone else. For some people, any publicity is good publicity.

So, the award for tugger (love that word!) of the year goes to ...(rustling of envelope being opened)...RICHARD BRANSON.

I bet the bugger would come to accept it too...as long as the TV cameras were there.

All the best,

The Truffmeister

Some more things named after their inventors: The Davey Lamp used by miners, the Sam Browne reflective belt worn by cyclists (and others), the Belisha Beacon (those orange-lollipop traffic crossing lights found in the UK) was named after Lord Bellisha who instigated them when he was secretary of transport.

Then there is Benzine; which is a kind of fuel (Germans call petrol/gasoline Benzin) was named after Karl Benz I believe, who incidently was the father of one Miss Mercedes Benz, the young lady for whom the now famous line of cars is named.

Then there is the Mars Bar, made by Mars Confectionery, whose founder was Frank C. Mars, a candy salesman. He and his wife started their first candy-making operation in the kitchen of their Tacoma, Washington home in 1911. Forrest E. Mars, Sr. of Mars Confections in Slough, in the United Kingdom.

Gooday Truffmeister,

Whoops, now I know who Richard Branson is, and it should have been obvious since I think he is the bloke behind the new airline, Virgin Blue, which is about to start operating here in Australia. Perhaps if I read newspapers and watched television a bit more instead of spending too much time on the Internet and studying medieval history it would have all registered. And maybe I have been inhaling too many of David Ulux's paint fumes.

Bizarre. Well, this site is certainly different, but it doesn't seem so strange to me, probably because I am a few kangaroos short in the top paddock already. Take care.

Walter.

And Mr Kellogg, who had such bad feet (what with eczema and verucas) that he invented the cornflake. Yummy indeed

On a sideways angle, looking at people who have given their names to brands/companies, Mr Toyoto in Japan founded a car company sometime in the first half of the 20th Century. He pondered for a while what to call his company, and someone suggested "Toyoto"....he thought about it and said it sounded too bland and too Asian-sounding for the American/European market that Japan was entering into. He had a brainstorm, instead of "Toyoto" he would call it "Toyota".....wow what a difference an "A" makes!

Mitsubishi use a 3 pointed star as their logo: ironic that the word mitsu-bishi in Japanese means "Star with 3 points"... must have taken a marketing wizard months to work that one out.

I understood that the 'Toyota' name change came about because a Japanese 'fortune-teller' (for want of a better term) told the founder that the name had more fortuitous connotations. Or something. I also recall that the name was 'Toyoda' not 'Toyoto', but I could be wrong on that.

I don't think the Japanese have ever cared about names being bland or oriental. After all, what's so great about Honda, Sony, Sanyo and Nissan / Datsun?

I remember reading that Sony was a name especially devised to sound "American" by the Japanese founders. Because in Japan the ultimate honour one has is to your family and the company you work for; many Japanese companies use family names rather than invent names. Much like using J.A.Smith & Sons in preference to City Auto Mart, or whatever.

I don't know the history of Nissan but I do remember that there was no Nissan in the UK prior to about 1980-ish. It was just "Datsun" then suddenly it became Nissan and Datsun faded away.

Did you hear about the Boeing 747 carrying 400 tons of Japanese car accessories that exploded over Europe? For an hour it was raining Datsun cogs

Most modern office furniture was invented in 19th Century China by Fi Ling Cabinet

Hildebrand and Wolfmüller had the generic name "Motorrad" (motorbike) patented in Germany in 1894. They are long forgotten, but there still are s.