Listerine
pronunciation
How to pronounce Listerine in British English:
UK 
How to pronounce Listerine in American English:
US
Word Origin
- Listerine (n.)
- 1879, American English, formulated by Dr. Joseph Lawrence and Jordan Wheat Lambert as a multi-purpose disinfectant and anti-septic for surgery. In 1895, after it was discovered to kill germs commonly found in the mouth, the Lambert Company started marketing it as an oral antiseptic. Named for Joseph Lord Lister (1827-1912), F.R.S., O.M., English surgeon, who revolutionized modern surgery by applying Pasteur's discoveries and performing the first ever antiseptic surgery in 1865. Lister objected in vain to the use of his name on the product. Lister (attested from 1286, an Anglian surname) is from Middle English lit(t)e "to dye" (see litmus) + fem. suffix -ster, hence, "a dyer."
Example
- 1. One of these products , listerine , made good use of another twentieth-century device - advertising .
- 2. A $ 5 bottle of listerine in your medicine cabinet may do the job as effectively as a $ 75 bottle of dvd cleaning fluid .
- 3. And so , in an intriguing reversal of the invented demand for antiseptic mouthwash , the market compelled listerine to introduce a gentler , mint-flavored antiseptic for the first time in 1992 .
- 4. Classic listerine doesn 't cool , it burns : that fiery sensation is not a thermal illusion but a mild irritation of the sensitive mouth tissues as the antiseptic solution goes about its germ-killing business .
- 5. The listerine company didn 't invent halitosis - neither the word nor the condition - but they did invent an extremely effective marketing campaign for an extremely foul-tasting liquid .