Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Dyspepsia
The word dyspepsia is another word for indigestion. People with indigestion may experience heartburn, gas and nausea, so someone described as a dyspeptic personality is ill-humored, depressed and cranky. The word dyspepsia originally came from the Greek prefix dys, meaning “bad” and “faulty,” and peptos, meaning “digested.” The technical term dyspepsia also helped name the popular carbonated beverage Pepsi, originally called Brad’s Drink, after the pharmacist creator, Caleb Bradham. The bubbly beverage was originally sold at Bradham’s North Carolina pharmacy in 1893, touted as having healthy digestive benefits. Bradham renamed it Pepsi Cola in 1898 and eventually trademarked the name in 1903. By 1910 it had grown to 240 franchises in 24 states.
There are other large successful companies that have changed names along the way. In 1996 the world’s largest search engine was called BackRub. Today it is known as Google. Best Buy started as Sound of Music and Ward’s Company became Circuit City. A small radio repair shop in Japan known as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo in 1946 changed its name in 1958 to Sony Corp. Nike was once known as Blue Ribbon Sports until it was renamed for the Greek goddess of Victory. Canon started as Precision Optical Instruments Laboratory and 7-Eleven stores were once known as Tote’m Stores. Jerry’s Guide to the Worldwide Web became Yahoo, PayPal started as Confinity, and Auction Web became eBay. The company now called IBM was founded in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corp. following a merger of the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Co. and the Computing Scale Co. It became International Business Machines and eventually the much simpler IBM.
The seldom-heard opposite of “dyspepsia” is “eupepsia,” meaning “good digestion.” A person described as eupeptic is cheerful, upbeat and carefrey. Anyone who had originally invested in Brad’s Drink would certainly be eupeptic considering the current market capitalization of PepsiCo Inc. exceeds $250 billion.
