Is it true that the word "nylon" comes from the names of the cities of New York and London?

It is common that the name of popular synthetic material is a reduction from New York and London. We checked how reasonably such an opinion is.

Nylon is a common name for several varieties of synthetic fiber. In English it is called Nylon, and this gave rise to an unusual etymological version. Allegedly, the word consists of two parts: ny (abbreviation from New York) and LON (reduction from London). This option is given by users "Living Journal" And the portal "Big question", journalists "Komsomolskaya Pravda" And even the compilers "Dictionary of abbreviations and abbreviations". In the latter case, it is argued that the inventor of Nylon decided in this way to perpetuate the cities in which he worked.

The fiber, later called Nylon, synthesized in 1935 the American chemist Wallace Caross. In 1938, nylon was first used to use nylon - from it they made bristles for dental brushes. The next year, visitors to the World Exhibition in New York were introduced to nylon stockings-perhaps the most famous product from this material. On the first day of their sale in the USA, May 15, 1940, Bought it out Almost 800,000 pairs.

Initially, Karozers He called it The invention of “fiber 66”, because both of its components (adipinic acid and hexamethylendiamine) had six carbon atoms. However, Dupont, in the laboratory of which the researcher worked on the new fabric, understood that it needed a different name to sell her product. By 1938 there was Compiled List of four hundred options. One of the participants in the Committee, who chose the name, proposed the version of Norun - the English word RUN has the meaning of “arrow” (for example, on tights). Colleagues showed him that from the absence of arrows, the products from the new fiber were not safe, and examined the “inverted” option - Nuron, but the sound seemed too “medical”. Further there were NULON and NILON options, but in the case of the latter it was not entirely clear the pronunciation. As a result, the committee stopped at Nylon.

The etymological version that Nylon received its name in honor of the American and English cities has long been established both in Russia and abroad. Already in 1952 this assumption introduced In his etymological dictionary, Ernst Wikilley. At the same time, six years later, Eric Partridge challenged such a statement by his colleague. In his "Brief Etymological Dictionary of the Modern English" he reportedWhat asked the etymology of the word “nylon” to manufacturers-they said that the name turned out to be arbitrarily and has nothing to do with New York and London.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. MatThew E. Hermes, Enough for One Lifetime: Wallace Carothers, Inventor of Nylon
2. Wallace Carothers and the Development of Nylon
3. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stocking-the-true-origin/