This week’s theme
Eponyms

This week’s words
brewstered
hoover
cookie monster
marplot
Panglossian

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(HOO-vuhr)

MEANING:

noun:	A vacuum cleaner.
verb tr.:	1. To clean, especially with a vacuum cleaner.
	2. To consume or acquire quickly, eagerly, or in large amounts.

ETYMOLOGY:

After the industrialist William Henry Hoover (1849-1932). Earliest documented use: 1934.

NOTES:

Have you suction-swept your place this week? What? Before there was Hoover, there was the Electric Suction Sweeper Company. It was founded by a janitor/inventor, James Murray Spangler, in Ohio. His was not the first vacuum, but it was the first practical one. He showed it to his cousin, Susan Hoover, who told her husband and son about it, and they bought into the business.

The company started a subsidiary in the UK and the US company was eventually sold to others. As a result, the word hoover as a synonym for a vacuum is common mostly in the UK. If you thought there should be a hovering hoover, you are not alone. In the 1950s the company made a vacuum named Hoover Constellation that kinda hovered.

If you have already started thinking about what to give to women in your life this holiday season, consider this Hoover ad from 1940. It suggests men give their mothers, wives, and daughters a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. “You can show that devotion by giving each of them the same gift ... a Hoover Cleaner.” Good old times! Showing appreciation for three generations of women in the family with a thoughtful, practical gift! Of course, Hoover was not the only one. The ad was a product of its time. Check out this Sears vacuum cleaner ad.

USAGE:

“For now, campaigns from both parties are hoovering up as many cellphone numbers as possible, and Parscale has said texting will be at the center of Trump’s reelection strategy.”
McKay Coppins; The Billion-Dollar Disinformation Campaign to Reelect the President; The Atlantic (Boston, Massachusetts); Mar 2020.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: