Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
From: mikkelson%rwtms2.decnet@consrt.rockwell.com (snopes)
Subject: Re: Nylon

In article <1992Oct17.201418.22632@sq.sq.com>, 
msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) quotes the OED:

>#  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...  

On the contrary, _The Origins and Development of the English Language_ contains
the following footnote:

"'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'".

 - snopes