Hi manyquestions1-ga,
As you might know, ACME is commonly recongnized as the (fictitious)
company that manufactured products used by Wile E. Coyote in many
failed attempts to catch Road Runner. As you point out though, ACME
also appears in the real world. For example, there was an ACME
corporation near my hometown. I always wondered if there was more to
their name than a cartoon reference, so I enjoyed researching your
question.
Perhaps not surprisingly, acme.com (ACME Labs) has an answer to your question:
http://www.acme.com/what_is_acme.html
That acme page has the following points:
1) The dictionary definition is: "the top", or "the highest point", or
just "perfection".
- This is easily confirmed by any dictionary, from the OED (Oxford
English Dictionary) to Google's definition link. The subtext is that
companies choose this name because they like the implication that
their company makes superior products.
2) Apparently some early business school textbooks liked to use Acme
as a business name in some of their examples.
- I was not able to verify this.
3) There's a story that the business school use is an acronym,
standing for "A Company Manufacturing Everything".
- The belief that ACME is an acronym for phrases similar to "A
Company that Makes Everything" is widespread. There are many threads
throughout Usenet that make this claim. If you search Google Groups
for "what does acme mean?" you will find several posts with this
belief.
- Since acronyms themselves are not very old (the OED's first usage
is 1943), I do not believe this is the origional origin. Still,
people might use the acronym with that intended meaning today.
4) Sears-Roebuck used Acme as one of their in-house brand names in
the early 1900s, just like they use "Craftsman" today.
- The acme.com webpage links to a scanned image of an advertisement
for an ACME anvil, so this appears to be true.
5) Warner Brothers apparently took the name from Sears and used it
for the mail-order company in the Wile E. Coyote cartoons.
- I don't know if Warner Brothers *took* it from Sears, but they
certainly use it in their cartoons.
I hope this answers your question.
Sincerely,
dogbite-ga |
