The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
Language
Etymology
 nylon etymology of




># nylon ... [Invented word, with -on suggested by rayon, cotton.

># There is no evidence to support the derivations freq. given for
># this word in popular sources. Cf. the following quot.: 1940 Women's
># Wear Daily 9 Feb. 22 The du Pont letter, written by John W. Eckelberry,
># covers the general status of nylon as follows: "The word is a generic
># word coined by the du Pont Co. It is not a registered name or trademark...
># We wish to emphasize the following additional points: First, that the
># letters n-y-l-o-n have absolutely no significance, etymological or
># otherwise...

A dissenting opinion from _The Origins and Development of the English Language_:

"'Nylon' may not be quite etymologyless. According to _Context_, a Du Pont company publication (vol. 7, no. 2, 1978), when the material was first developed, it was called 'polyhexamethyleneadipamide'. Realizing the stuff needed a catchier name than that, the company thought of 'duprooh', an acronym for 'Du Pont pulls rabbit out of hat', but instead settled on 'no-run' until it was pointed out that stockings made of the material were not really run-proof. So the spelling of the word was reversed to 'nuron', which was modified to 'nilon' to make it sound less like a nerve tonic. Then, to prevent a pronunciation like 'nillon', the company changed 'i' to 'y', producing 'nylon'. Thus beneath that apparently quite arbitrary word lurks the English expression 'no-run'".


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