The origins of standard shape names

[sstodvictory]

Recently I showed a poker to a friend. The first thing he did was grasp it in his fist with the stem pointing away from him. He began making jabbing motions with it, saying he understood how it came to be called a "poker". That may be, but then there's the game of poker, the poker fireplace tool, Poker is a surname of English origin, and there's probably a place-name Poker somewhere as well. It got me wondering about other standard shape names.

Names like Apple or Brandy seem obvious from their shape, and we all know the origin of the shape name "Bing Crosby", but then there's Dublin, Zulu, Billiard, Bulldog, Author, and others...and Poker..that are not so obvious.

Dublin, I have heard, was a popular clay pipe shape named after the city.

What do you know about the origin of shape names? What have you heard that falls short of know?

Steve

 

[Doc Manhattan]

I recall reading that "poker" springs from the ability to rest the pipe on a flat surface when clenching or holding are not practical, esp. at the card table. (This would make the poker pipe the second convenience item with this etymology, the first, more famous, being the Sandwich.)

I suspect, but definitely don't know, that author is a similar name--a pipe named for its convenience for clenching whilst hacking away with pen or typewriter.

Oom Paul is a definite eponym. Lovat, Prince of Wales, and Duke are sorts of eponym--which Prince, Duke or Lord Lovat, I cannot say.

 

[Rad Davis]

What about the elephant foot? I could never figure that out.

Or hawkbill?

Rad

 

[Obelus]

.

 

[KevinP]

Oom Paul is a definite eponym.

I don't know about that. It may be, but I always thought of it as the way we describe rhytyms: a polka rhythm is oom-pa, oom-pa, and a waltz is oom-pa-pa, oom-pa-pa. The pipe shape is a perfect visual metaphor, with the bass note being the bowl and the chord the stem. It also rather resmembles a printed musical note. (I just figured the 'paul' was a normalization to a standard word.)

Either that or it came from from Oompa-Loompa-Land.

 

[KevinP]

Plus there's a lot of gurgling at polkas.

 

[Harlock999]

While I'm on, I'll hazard a guess that "hawkbill" came about when some quick-thinking guy realized that he was going to have to explain to his wife that he'd just spent the rent on a Castello "donkeynut."

"Honey, it's a hawkbill, see. Classy. Looks just like a beak..."

That's a good one!

 

[MisterE]

Oom Paul is a definite eponym.

I don't know about that. It may be, but I always thought of it as the way we describe rhytyms: a polka rhythm is oom-pa, oom-pa, and a waltz is oom-pa-pa, oom-pa-pa. The pipe shape is a perfect visual metaphor, with the bass note being the bowl and the chord the stem. It also rather resmembles a printed musical note. (I just figured the 'paul' was a normalization to a standard word.)

Either that or it came from from Oompa-Loompa-Land.

From Wikipedia....

Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904), better known as Paul Kruger and affectionately known as Uncle Paul (Afrikaans: "Oom Paul") was State President of the South African Republic (Transvaal). He gained international renown as the face of Boer resistance against the British during the South African or Second Boer War (1899–1902).

Pipe manufacturers still produce a style named "Oom Paul", the characteristic large-bowled full-bent shape often seen in photographs of Paul Kruger and believed to have been designed especially for him.

Makes sense...

But a Zulu? Lumberjack? Rhodog (hahaha)?

 

[SpeedyPete]

Oom Paul is a definite eponym.

I don't know about that. It may be, but I always thought of it as the way we describe rhytyms: a polka rhythm is oom-pa, oom-pa, and a waltz is oom-pa-pa, oom-pa-pa. The pipe shape is a perfect visual metaphor, with the bass note being the bowl and the chord the stem. It also rather resmembles a printed musical note. (I just figured the 'paul' was a normalization to a standard word.)

Either that or it came from from Oompa-Loompa-Land.

:lol!:

 

[-R.]

My assumption is that the bulldog is named after its resemblance to the head of the canine of the same name. That might be wrong, as many assumptions are.

 

[MisterE]

Oom Paul is a definite eponym.

I don't know about that. It may be, but I always thought of it as the way we describe rhytyms: a polka rhythm is oom-pa, oom-pa, and a waltz is oom-pa-pa, oom-pa-pa. The pipe shape is a perfect visual metaphor, with the bass note being the bowl and the chord the stem. It also rather resmembles a printed musical note. (I just figured the 'paul' was a normalization to a standard word.)

Either that or it came from from Oompa-Loompa-Land.

Or perhaps... Oom pa pa oom pa, oom pa pa oom pa.....

"Take Five" by "Oom Paul" Desmond.... :lol!:

 

[nosenhoj]

gentelmen;
Go here for the best info on Oom Paul.

http://homepage.mac.com/venessa1/OomPaul.com/Contact/contact.html

"There's a story behind every bowl"

 

[Eulenburg]

I suspect many of the names were made up by manufacturers.

Many are attributed to soldiers in campaign, like the Boer War, or the Zulu war. And can somebody tell the difference between a zulu and a yachtsman?? Or between a bull-dog and a Rhodesian?

Before being named after "Uncle" Paul Kruger, the oom-paul was known as a Hungarian, and is still so called in French.

Billiard is from the French bille, a stick, and may be so called because its shank is straight and narrow, like a billiard cue?

The prince—originally, Prince of Wales—was designed by Dunhill for the man who later abdicated the British throne to marry "the woman he loved", a divorced American commoner.

The Lovat is named after Lord Lovat-Fraser, Brigadier-General Simon Joseph Fraser, 14th Lord Lovat and 3rd Baron Lovat KT, GCVO, KCMG, CB, DSO (1871-1933), a leading Roman Catholic aristocrat, landowner, soldier, politician and the 23rd Chief of the Scottish Clan Fraser.

And I am not quite certain what the differene between a Canadian and a Liverpool is. I think the Liverpool has a longer mouthpiece.

Liverpool:

Canadian:

 

[eon]

The prince—originally, Prince of Wales—was designed by Dunhill for the man who later abdicated the British throne to marry "the woman he loved", a divorced American commoner.

A small correction here. Though the shape was indeed originally made for Prince Albert who would later ascend to the British throne as King Edward VII, the honour of design belongs to Loewe, not Dunhill. An English dandy if ever there was one, the prince needed elegance not offered by other shapes in existence at the time. Anyone who has ever contemplated a silver-mounted prince with a gracefully hanging stem probably understands something of the air that Loewe was trying to convey. It is true that Dunhill of old made some of the most beautiful interpretations of the shape, however, and many a pipe collector will think of the latter when trying to picture a quintessential prince.

 

[MisterE]

And I am not quite certain what the differene between a Canadian and a Liverpool is. I think the Liverpool has a longer mouthpiece.

The basic differences among the longshanks:

The Canadian has an oval shank and a Liverpool has a round shank, but both have tapered stems.

The Lumberman has an oval shank, and the Lovat has a round shank, both with a saddle stem.

In some cases, however, they are just whatever the manufacturer calls them. :lol!:

 

[umfunix]

The Oom Paul shape has its origin from the president of the ZAR during the Anglo-Boer War in the beginning of the 1900's.

https://youtu.be/AkqWjw6ql_c

 

[KevinM]

Wouldn't this be a great thesis topic if there were a Ph.D. offered in pipeology? I was once assured that bulldog got its name from the "collar" with no apparent neck. Well, . . .

I have two Princes, and have seen reputable pipe shops describe them as "bent apples."

I've heard the "billiard" = "stick" explanation before, bit can't help feeling a bit skeptical, though with no better candidate to offer.

I used to have a wall chart of pipe shapes and many (most?) of the names were by no means self evident or, for that matter, even offered a clue to the curious.