Words at Play : Top 10 Words from Trademarks, Vol. 2
In the 1930s, motorcycle enthusiast Alton Curran patented a cleaning solvent and named it "Gunk."
The cleaning brand Gunk lives on.
Ironically, however, its name – perhaps because it sounds like a combination of "goo" and "junk" – has evolved into a term for the kind of "filthy, sticky, or greasy matter" that the product is designed to remove.
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