> mixed tin of Caran d'Ache pencils Totally off-topic but I just realized as I read that that it sounded like the Russian word for pencil: карандаш (karandash)

> mixed tin of Caran d'Ache pencils Totally off-topic but I just realized as I read that that it sounded like the Russian word for pencil: карандаш (karandash) So I thought, aha, it's like with Xerox -- the Russians took the name of the company that makes the item and named all the items of that type after the company's name. But it actually is even more interesting. The name of the company was taken from a French satirist who created his pseudonym after the Russian name for pencil. And then, later, a Swiss company that made pencils used the name of the French satirist's pseudonym as their name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caran_d%27Ache_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caran_d%27Ache_(company)