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The Strange Tale of the Hotchkiss


me time ago my attention was drawn to the origins of the word ホチキス (hochikisu) (sometimes ホッチキス) in Japanese. To a native speaker of English who actually knows the word Hotchkiss, it usually refers to a WWI machine gun and related military impedimenta.

To a Japanese ホチキス invariably refers to an office paper stapler, for which it is the generic name just as "hoover" is the term for vacuum cleaner in the UK. When I first encountered the term in Japanese I assumed it came from the American brand of stapler of that name, which was dominant in the market in the early years of the 20th century. She was a benefactor to a black nursing college back in the 1920's and built a hospital wing in Norwalk, Ct. Eli died 3/1918 aboard his boat when he choked to death on a sandwich.

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