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The generic Hungarian word for trash cans, 'kuka', unexpectedly originates from the names of German industrialists Johann Josef Keller and Jakob Knappich. The
by saithound 3y ago
The generic Hungarian word for trash cans, 'kuka', unexpectedly originates from the names of German industrialists Johann Josef Keller and Jakob Knappich.
The story is quite involved, to the extent that one would be tempted to dismiss it as a folk etymology, if it wasn't ridiculously well-attested.
Keller and Knappich founded an acetylene factory in Augsburg, Bavaria in 1898. They named it Keller und Knappich Augsburg (KUKA).
Their venture quickly expanded into manufacturing of welding equipment, household appliances, and eventually car parts and heavy industrial robots. In the 1920s, they manufactured hoppers for Hungarian municipal garbage trucks, which they stamped prominently with their logo.
This led to refuse trucks being known colloquially referred to as "kukás auto" (lit. "car with KUKA written on it"), even long after KUKA stopped manufacturing those hoppers. And the noun kuka, referring to trash cans, arose as a backformation from there! And this is how two German industrialist gave their names to Hungarian trash cans. Of course, it probably helped that a word kuka existed in the Hungarian language already at that point (as an unrelated adjective referring to a mute person), much like snowflake existed before Snow and Flake founded the town.
- miki123211 3y agoThis happened in Poland with long-haul trucks, which we often call tiry (plural of tir), with TIR being an abbreviation for "Transports Internationaux Routiers"[1], an international treaty covering the transport of goods by road. Vehicles using the provisions of this treaty must have a plate with TIR written on it, and so the world entered popular usage. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIR_Convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIR_Convention
- yau8edq12i 3y agoFunny enough, the French word for a garbage can is also named after someone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Poubelle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Poubelle the prefect who made the use of garbage containers mandatory in Paris.
- Kwpolska 3y agoContinuing with the trend, the Polish word for outhouse is sławojka, named after Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski, a prime minister who is responsible for making them mandatory in the countryside in the 1920s, and apparently touring the country to check how sanitary they are. https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%82awojka https://pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C5%82awojka
- carlob 3y agoPretty much the same can be said in Italian about public urinals and the emperor Vespasian(o).
- mrighele 3y agoInteresting, it seems to be the same KUKA that know produces robots
- jansan 3y agoInteresting that this occured during the k.u.k. monarchy.
- lepetitpedre 3y agoDon’t google kuk(a) in Sweden
- lb1lf 3y agoIncidentally, 'kuk' is a Norwegian word, a somewhat pejorative synonym for 'penis', but almost as versatile as the four-letter word - it can be used as an adjective, a verb, an adverb, a noun etc. Saying that 'something is kuka/kuket' means it is messed up beyond repair. Even as I approach my fifties, I have to stifle a chuckle every time I see a KUKA robot. Kids never really grow up, I guess. As for things named after people, the probably most prominent example in Norwegian today is the so-called 'Brustadbu', named after former minister of children and families, Sylvia Brustad. The government she was in introduced a new law governing opening hours for convenience stores, effectively barring stores above 100sqm (1,100 sqft) from being open on Sundays. Predictably, this gave rise to a lot of stores measuring 99.9sqm, colloquially referred to as 'Brustadbu'/'Brustad sheds'.
- Gare 3y agoKuka in Croatian means "hook" so at least their robotic arms are somewhat aptly named.
- arnorhs 3y agoincidentally, "kuka" (or actually "kúka") means to poop in icelandic
- Hunpeter 3y agoInteresting! "Kuki" in Hungarian is a children's word for penis. I assume it's a nickname for "kukac", meaning worm/maggot (which, btw, is the same word we use for the @ symbol).
- verisimi 3y agoKuk = Cock, surely
- tkgally 3y agoThe most common word in Japanese for “stapler” is hochikisu or hotchikisu, which seems to come from the name of the E.F. Hotchkiss Company [1], an American manufacturer whose staplers were imported to Japan in the early 20th century. Some Japanese sources [2] say that the word comes from Benjamin Hotchkiss [3], an inventor of machine guns, and that is what I learned many years ago, but that etymology apparently has not been documented [4]. [1] https://connecticutmills.org/find/details/e.h.-hotchkiss-co https://connecticutmills.org/find/details/e.h.-hotchkiss-co [2] https://gally.net/temp/20240222hotchikisugogensetsu.jpg https://gally.net/temp/20240222hotchikisugogensetsu.jpg [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_B._Hotchkiss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_B._Hotchkiss [4] https://wis.max-ltd.co.jp/about/company/trivia/h_story/inventor.html https://wis.max-ltd.co.jp/about/company/trivia/h_story/inven...
- throwaway2037 3y agoMore: https://jisho.org/forum/5d132f2ed5dda71944000054-origin-of-name https://jisho.org/forum/5d132f2ed5dda71944000054-origin-of-n...
- zilti 3y agoIn Switzerland, we call staplers Bostitch, which happens to be the name of an US company that (used to or still does) manufacture them.
- glandium 3y agoX rays are called Rentogen in Japanese, after Wilhelm Röntgen, who produced/detected them first.
- heavypixels 3y agoThe story continues in the Netherlands, where a company licensed the Keller and Knappich design to produce their own trucks. Of course, they released it under their own names: Klinkenberg & Koster, abbreviated as KLIKO, which they too stamped in large font on their trucks and bins. And today "kliko" is the common Dutch name for the wheelie bin.
- SargeDebian 3y agoI guess only in those parts of the country where Kliko had a large market share at some point. The Otto brand name is so strong in the east that they have no idea what a Kliko is.
- EvanAnderson 3y agoContinuing the trash theme, "Dumpster" comes from the Dempster family name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dempster_Brothers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dempster_Brothers
- zilti 3y agoIn Switzerland, there is a company Ochsner, which also manufactured the household bins to go with the hoppers, and patented that. Those bins became mandatory in quite a bunch of municipalities. Eventually, garbage sacks were introduced like everywhere else, the bins became obsolete, though I still see hoppers from them, so they still make those. Long story short, the bins (called "Ochsnerchübu") are gone, but the madness of patenting a freaking trashcan resulted in one of Switzerland's most successful bands having named themselves "Patent Ochsner".