such made up words like nylon are less interesting than say cotton
From a word point of view (this being a word-site), the word nylon is interesting. One site notes two opposing views (each with citations, not here quoted; emphases added):
The word is a generic word coined by the du Pont Co. It is not a registered name or trademark... We wish to emphasize the following additional points: First, that the letters n-y-l-o-n have absolutely no significance, etymological or otherwise...
but a much more interesting alternative, from The Origins and Development of the English Language:
"'Nylon' may not be quite etymologyless. ...
when the material was first developed, it was called 'polyhexamethyleneadipamide'.
Realizing the stuff needed a catchier name than that, the company thought of 'duprooh', an acronym for 'Du Pont pulls rabbit out of hat',
but instead settled on 'no-run' until it was pointed out that stockings made of the material were not really run-proof.
So the spelling of the word was reversed to 'nuron',
which was modified to 'nilon' to make it sound less like a nerve tonic.
Then, to prevent a pronunciation like 'nillon', the company changed 'i' to 'y', producing 'nylon'.
Thus beneath that apparently quite arbitrary word lurks the English expression 'no-run'".
