Etymology of Yo-Yo (LENGTHY)

[Jim Rader]

Our files have some material on <<yo-yo>, but nothing conclusive.  Beware that
the following contains a fair quantity of material on yo-yo history, so if you're not
interested, exit and delete this message...but I would love it if some
ANLANGers could shed light on the etymology


The earliest evidence for <<yo-yo> in the _Oxford English Dictionary_ is the
following (apologies for the html garbage I'm probably importing--I hope it's still
readable):

1915 <color><param>0000,0000,7F00</param><FontFamily><param>Arial OUP</param> _Phillipine Craftsman_ Dec. 363 <color><param>0000,0000,FF00</param>Sumpit (blowgun), pana (arrow), and yo-
yo, however, are names very generally used throughout the islands.

Ibid.<color><param>0000,0000,7F00</param> 364 <color><param>0000,0000,FF00</param>There is evidently some commercial possibility in Filipino toys, for a
patent was recently secured upon the yo-yo by a firm in the United States.


</color><FontFamily><param>Arial</param>(Does any ANLANGer know what language, if any, <<sumpit> and <<pana> come
from?)


The first cite we (Merriam-Webster) have is from the _Scientific-American_
Supplement mentioned below, which contains a picture of the object and the
word, but nothing about the Phillipines.  A 1929 _New York Times_ article
(Aug.18) records the following tale:  "The modern yo-yo is two years old.  Pedro
Flores, a bus boy in a Santa Barbara hotel, whittled out a balanced spheroid,
which he twirled on a bit of string when the bell captain was not looking.  The
guests saw.  The bus boy found his income augmented by orders for the
incredibly simple toy.  He bought a wooden lathe.  Today he has two factories
in Los Angeles."  In 1930 a patent was applied for the toy by Donald F. Duncan
of Chicago, in the name of the "Flores Yo-Yo Company"; the trademark was
registered in 1933.


The following article about Pedro Flores was published in the _American Yo-Yo
Association Newsletter_ (Aug., 1997).  It's of considerable interest, so I quote it
in full.

<color><param>0100,0100,0100</param>Excepts from "Lucky’s Guide to YoYo collecting" by: Lucky Meisenheimer, MD

The Flores yo-yo was the first yo-yo manufactured in the United States, its
originator was Pedro Flores. Pedro Flores is considered the original yo-yo guru.
Mr. Flores was the singular most important person in introducing the word "yo-
yo" to the United States. Although the yo-yo as a toy (known as a bandalore)
has been used for centuries, even existing in the United States for years prior
to Mr. Flores, as one astute observer noted in the late 1920’s "we’ve all done
the yo-yo before but we never had a name for it."

Pedro Flores was a native of Vintarilocos Norte, Philippines. He came to the
United State in 1915. He attended the High School of Commerce in San
Francisco 1919-1920 then he took up the study of Law at the University of
California Berkeley and the Hastings College of Law in San Francisco.

Flores dropped out of school for reasons unknown and moved to Santa Barbara,
California. He worked at odd jobs for years and at the time of starting his yo-yo
business he was working as a bellboy.

He developed his vision for the yo-yo’s potential when he read about a man
selling a ball attached to a rubber band who made a million dollars. He
remembered the game yo-yo, which was played for hundreds of years in the
Philippines, and he thought it had a good market possibility in the U.S. Mr.
Flores was quoted saying "I do not expect to make a million dollars, I just want
to be working for myself. I have been working for other people for practically all
my life and I don’t like it."

In early 1928 Flores came to Los Angeles and asked some wealthy Philippine
for assistance in manufacturing yo-yos. His friends thought him crazy and he
returned to Santa Barbara with only his dream. Being a true entrepreneur, at
the age of 29, on June 9th 1928, he applied and received a certificate of
conducting business for the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara.
On June 23, 1928 he made 1 dozen yo-yos by hand and began selling them to
neighborhood children. By November of 1928 his company had 2000 yo-yos
and he was able to attract two American financiers, James and Daniel Stone of
Los Angeles. Now with the ability to produce machine made yo-yos, four
months later, over 100,000 yo-yos had been produced. By November of 1929
three factories were making 300,000 yo-yos daily and employing 600 workers.
These companies were the Flores and Stone, Los Angeles; The Flores Yo-yo
Corporation, Hollywood; and the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company, Santa Barbara.

Flores also inaugurated the yo-yo spinning contest which spread the first yo-yo
frenzy in the United States in late 1928 and 1929. The yo-yo was promoted as
the Flores Yo-yo "The Wonder Toy" and using a phrase which now familiar with
a slight variation "If it isn’t Flores it isn’t a yo-yo" as the slogan. Although early
contests resulted in the spread of the yo-yo fad they were clearly different than
the more modern contests. In the initial contests endurance was the main
event. The winner was the individual who could keep his or her yo-yo spinning
up and down without missing, for the longest duration. Many contests resulted
in ties after hours of continuous yo-yoing by stubborn competitors refusing to
quit. Frequently, the champion of these endurance events was determined by
drawing straws. Other contest categories included the yo-yo thrown farthest
with complete return and the largest number of perfect spins in a five minute
period. Prizes were also for hand made yo-yos, and yo-yos made out of bicycle
wheels and wood barrel tops were not uncommon submissions. Early contests
could be found anywhere but on November 22, 1929 the Gates Theater in
Portsmouth, Virginia, became the first theater to offer a contest. For the rest of
the 20’s and 30’s theaters became popular sites for contests. Although some
Flores yo-yo strings were made out of silk which allowed for less sleep action
than later cotton strings. Several different designs of the Flores yo-yo were
done. Prices in 1929 ranged from 15 cents to $1.50 each depending on the
design and decoration. Flores employed Dorothy Carter as his chief designer of
his yo-yos.

Although Pedro Flores was frequently described as the inventor of the yo-yo,
Mr. Flores never personally claimed to have invented the yo-yo, and he always
mentioned it’s past history as a centuries old Philippine game. He was also
frequently described as the patent holder of the yo-yo, but yo-yos (Bandalores)
prior to Pedro Flores had already been patented. Even though patent applied for
and patent pending are often seen on Flores yo-yos this was a technique used
to dissuade other toy companies from producing yo-yos. There was no legal
patent held for the standard yo-yo by Pedro Flores. He did apply for and receive
a trademark for the Flores Yo-yo and this was registered on July 22, 1930. It
was shortly after this that Flores sold his interest in the yo-yo factories which
were later acquired by the Donald Duncan Yo-yo Company.

At the end of 1929 a true yo-yo craze was going on across the country initially
inspired by Flores but new competitors had entered the arena including Don
Duncan, Lewis Marx and others. Although Duncan’s name is most associated
with the popularity of the yo-yo contests, the original yo-yo fire was fueled by
Pedro Flores. It is uncertain exactly at what date Duncan Yo-yo Company
acquired the Flores Yo-Yo name (probably 1930) but it did have the Flores trade
mark legally assigned to it in 1932. For a period of time in the early 1930’s
Duncan corporation not only sold Duncan Yo-yos but they also sold Flores Yo-
yos as well. In very early contests in 1931 either a genuine Flores yo-yo or a
genuine Duncan Gold Seal Yo-yo could be used in the competitions.

Pedro Flores was reported to have sold his interest in his yo-yo manufacturing
companies for greater than one quarter of a million dollars, which during the
depression was a fortune. Mr. Flores was quoted saying "I am more interested
in teaching children to use the yo-yos than I am in manufacturing of yo-yos."
Flores followed through by becoming one of the key promoters in Duncan’s
early yo-yo campaigns. Especially during 1931-32, Mr. Flores was instrumental
in setting up many of the promotions in the cities where the early Duncan
contests were being held. The contest’s were vastly changed from the initial
contests ran by Flores just two years previously. These contests now required
a series of tricks similar to modern day contests with ties being broken by the
number of loop the loops completed.

Flores stayed involved with yo-yos most of his life and even after W.W. II he
helped Joe Radovan in the establishment of the Chico Yo-yo Company. He also
started the Flores Corp. of America in 1954 which briefly produced yo-yo in the
1950’s. Although Flores has less name recognition in the general public
compared to other yo-yo manufacturing companies it was Flores who
introduced the yo-yo craze to America.[END OF ARTICLE]

The trademark Yo-yo, still held by the Duncan toy company, was contested in
the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 7th Circuit in 1965.  The According to the
"1965 Year End Report" of the U.S. Trademark Association, "The Court...held
that the registered tademark <<yo-yo> was and is the common descriptive name
of the toy sold by the plaintiff and not a trademark of brand name and it could
be freely used by anyone....The Chairman of the Department of Anthropology
and Linguistics (State University of New York) 'expressed the definite opinion
that the word "yo-yo" is a Malayo-Polynesian word of Philippine origin; and that
the word "yo-yo" was tied together with the toy in the Philippines and was
introduced into the American language from that country."

When Merriam-Webster's _Third New International Dictionary_ was prepared,
words of Philippine origin were reviewed by Harold Conklin.  But I see no
evidence that <<yo-yo> was ever shown to him, because its trademark status
precluded an etymology for legal reasons (this is true of trademarks generally in
American dictionaries.)  In later plate changes the trademark status was
dropped and the word was given the vacuous and somewhat ludicruous
etymology "native name in the Philippines."  Conklin's opinion was never
sought, as far as I know.


Jim Rader


<color><param>0000,0000,0000</param>> Hello fellow ANLANG listers,

>

> I hope this is an appropriate topic for this list. I've always wondered

> which Philippine language "yo-yo" comes from since it's certainly not

> Tagalog; or at least the variety of Tagalog I know!

>

> In any case, I've attached a message below which appeared in a discussion

> group I'm on.

>

> Thanks,

>

> --Chris Sundita

> http://home.san.rr.com/bikol

>

> A site visitor sent this query about the origin of the term "yo-yo", a

> popular toy the origin of which is traced back to Filipinos. I have no

> doubt that it is an invention from the Philippines because way back in

> 1989 or 1990, I read an interesting article from New York Times while I

> was studying at Cornell University that traced the history of yo-yo to

> Filipinos who migrated to America in the early 1900s and introduced the

> toy, which became a hit.

>

> Anyway, here is the query:

>

> I read an article about the invention of yo-yo, and the article stated:

>

> " In 1916, the Scientific American Supplement, in an article called

> 'Filipino toys,' called the spinning disks a 'yo-yo.' The term is Tagalog

> (the main language of in the Philippines) for 'come-come' or 'come back'."

>

>

> I was just wondering if this information is correct because I thought that

> balik was the Tagalog word for come back."

>

> Thanks for your help

>

> -- Noel m

>



<nofill>
Jim Rader
Senior Editor
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
47 Federal St., P.O.Box 281
Springfield MA 01102
www.merriam-webster.com