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Origin and history of -ola

-ola

commercial suffix, probably originally in pianola (q.v.).

Entries linking to -ola

c. 1896, trademark name (1901) of a mechanical player-piano device using perforated rolls of paper, from piano, the ending perhaps abstracted from viola and meant as a diminutive suffix. The pianola's popularity led to a rash of product names ending in -ola, especially Victrola (q.v.), and slang words such as payola. Related: Pianolist.

by 1967, American English, probably from Italian grano "grain," or granular, with commercial suffix -ola. Earlier, with a capital G-, it was a proprietary name (reg. 1886 by W.K. Kellogg, in use into early 20c.) for a kind of breakfast cereal.

brand of shoe polish, originally as Shinol'a, by 1904, from shine in the "shoeshine" sense + commercial suffix -ola. The product is said to date to 1877 and seems to have ceased production c. 1970, but by then the word was proverbial for what you don't know something isn't, attested by 1931 ("He didn't know Flit from Shinola" as a joke punchline.)

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