nylon

Nylon is a coined word with a disputed origin. DuPont chemist Wallace Carothers synthesized the first nylon polymer (polyamide 6,6) in 1935 at DuPont's research laboratory in Wilmington, Delaware. The name nylon was chosen by DuPont's marketing team in 1938, but the company later denied that it stood for 'New York' and 'London' (NY + LON) or 'Now You Lousy Old Nipponese' (an anti-Japanese slur). DuPont's official position is that the name was arbitrary, chosen from a list of candidates. The truth may be lost in corporate history.

Nylon stockings went on sale at selected stores on October 24, 1939, and nationally on May 15, 1940 — 'N-Day.' Four million pairs sold in four days. Women had been wearing silk stockings, and silk came from Japan. With war looming, a domestic synthetic alternative was commercially and patriotically attractive. When the United States entered World War II, nylon production was diverted entirely to military use: parachutes, tire cords, ropes, and tent fabric. Nylon stockings disappeared from stores. A black market in nylon stockings operated throughout the war.

The word nylon became a generic term for synthetic fabric and then for stockings themselves. 'Nylons' meant stockings in mid-20th-century English, regardless of what they were made from. The brand name became the product name, as happened with aspirin, zipper, and escalator. DuPont eventually gave up trying to keep nylon capitalized.

Nylon was the first fully synthetic fiber — meaning it was made entirely from chemicals (adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine), not from modified natural materials like rayon (which is reconstituted cellulose). It was the proof of concept that synthetic chemistry could replace nature. Every synthetic fabric that followed — polyester, acrylic, spandex — walked through the door that nylon opened.