binky

[George Thompson]

This is
interesting.  I also
see that if I were
not a
paper-fixated
old codger who
still looks words
up in dictionaries,
I could have
learned this
through Google.

However, now I
wonder whether
there was a
pre-existing
word "binky".  If
not, why would
such a word be
coined as a
trademark for a
pacifier?  The
reason for coining
"playtex" as a
trademark for a
girdle or "kleenex"
for a tissue
nose-wipe are
understandable.

But since "binky"
doesn't show up
in dictionaries, I'm
not likely to
ever know
whether the word
came before the
trademark.

My reason for
thinking that it
may have is that
my wife has told
me that she only
recalls hearing
her mother use
the word binky
once, and that
only a few years
ago, when the two
were looking at
old family photos.
A photo of a baby
with a pacifier
lead the
mother-in-law to
say, "that's me
with my binky".
This suggests
that
"binky" was
perhaps her
family's word for
pacifier, ca. 1905,
since it wasn't the
old one's usual
word.  We don't
remember her
using any
distinctive word
for pacifier when
her grandchildren
were infants.
She and her
sisters and about
everyone else
from that
generation  are
now dead.

GAT

George A.
Thompson
Author of A
Documentary
History of "The
African
Theatre",
Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.

----- Original
Message -----
From: "Baker,
John"
<JBaker at STR
ADLEY.COM
>
Date: Saturday,
December 29,
2001 4:39 pm
Subject: Re:
binky

>        My wife,
from eastern
Massachusetts,
has this, and I
was
initially
mystified.  It
turns out that
Binky is a
registered
trademark for
pacifiers,
currently
owned, I
believe, by
Playtex
Products, and
apparently  used
since 1935.
>
> John Baker
>
>
> >
-----Original
Message-----
> > From:
George
Thompson
[SMTP:george.t
hompson at NY
U.EDU]
> > Sent:
Saturday,
December 29,
2001 12:33 PM
> > To:
ADS-L at LIST
SERV.UGA.E
DU
> > Subject:
binky
> >
> > My wife
calls my
attention to Bill
Gallo's cartoon
in the Daily
> News of
> > December
23, 2001, p.
82.  In the
lower right
corner of the
> drawing is
> > a diapered
baby, with a
pacifier in its
mouth.  There is
a label
> > reading
"binky, the ol'
reliable" and an
arrow pointing
to the
> pacifier.>
> > This caught
my wife's
attention
because her
mother had
called
> > pacifiers
"binkies".  I've
never heard the
word and don't
find it in
> > the usual
dictionaries.
DARE has (1)
"any little
mechanical
> >
contrivance"
from 1912 and
(2) as the
answer to the
question "the
> part> of the
body that you
sit on", 1968.
> >
> > The
lamented
mother-in-law
was born in
southwestern
Penn. in
> about 1904
> > to a family
with roots there
of several
generations, and
she lived
> > there all of
her life.  I know
that Bill Gallo is
a New Yorker
old
> > enough to
have been in the
marines during
WWII, and his
last name
> > suggests to
me that he is not
Scots
Presbyterian.
> >
> > GAT
> >
> > George A.
Thompson
> > Author of A
Documentary
History of "The
African
Theatre",
>
Northwestern>
Univ. Pr., 1998.
> >
> >
> >
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>