Brand names that entered the Iranian market had their names adapted, changed and warped into something hilarious and usually take on a whole new meaning in Persian.
1. 'Chesterfield' Popcorn 'chosefíl'
2. 'Rimmel' Mascara 'Rímel'
- Eugène Rimmel (1820–1887) was a French-born British perfumer and businessman, responsible for manufacturing and marketing some of the earliest commercially made cosmetics, through his company House of Rimmel. He invented the first commercial non toxic mascara, which became so popular that "rimmel" is to this day the word for "mascara" in several languages including French, Italian, Portuguese, Persian, Romanian, Spanish, Turkish and Arabic.
3. Mum Deodorant 'mom'
- Mum was the first brand of commercial deodorant. Containing a zinc compound as its active ingredient, it was developed in Philadelphia in 1888.It was named for the term "mum" meaning "to keep silent" as in the popular phrase "mums the word." Mum was originally sold as a cream in a jar and applied with the fingertips and is referred to frequently in Persian as the word for deodorant.
4. Kleenex tissues 'Kleenex
- Iranians frequently use the word Kleenex as the word for tissue.
5. Adams Gum آدامس 'Ádáms'
In Persian the word for gum is ádáms. The first brand to make it to Iran was Adams Chewing Gum, named after its inventor Thomas Adams.
Do you have any more persian words that were derived from Western brands? Would love to learn more to add to our collection. Email englisifarsi@gmail.com or comment below- we would love to hear from you.
References/image credits:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%A2%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B3
https://iranian.com/Features/1999/August/Gum/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Rimmel
This word is a mis-pronunciation of the word Chesterfield a brand of popcorn that was imported into Iran. After some deep diving I found some other words for popcorn in Persian.
پوف فیل pofe fíl [the puff of an elephant]
ذرت بوداده zorrat búdádeh [corn with a smell/smoke]