Like the brand name ASICS, which derives from an acronym, the name of NECCO wafers is also an acronym — at least partially. The candy takes its name from that of the New England Confectionary Company. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “NECCO Wafer Name”
We talked a few weeks ago about the brand name Asics, which is a kind of shoe, and it takes its name from a Latin phrase that means a sound mind and a sound body.
And I was reminded of a candy that takes its name from a partial abbreviation. These are little discs, and some people hate this candy, and some people love it. You know what I’m talking about?
They’re kind of the powdery pastel things.
Yes, yes, yes.
The wafers.
The wafers.
What are they called?
They’re called Necco wafers.
Oh, yes, right.
Necco wafers. And they’re so called because they were manufactured in the early part of the 20th century by the New England Confectionary Company.
So N-E-C and then C-O.
Yeah, the C-O was often used as part of a company name to blend words together, like Nabisco, for example.
Oh.
As you’ll find many other companies from that period with Co at the end.
This made me think of a Dutch brand acronym, or abbreviation, Brinta. It stands for BReakfast INstant TArwe, with tarwe meaning wheat. Is it still an initialism if it uses two starting letters from each word, instead of one? Also, is there a word for instances like these, where languages are blended?