# Gas Complot **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507 "2014-03-12T03:13:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pirurris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ea5d25/32.png) [@pirurris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pirurris)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507/1 "2014-03-12T03:13:31Z")
I have heard of previous gas complots against big oil companies were not successfull due to violence activity against the organizers from the same oil companies, is that true? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507/2 "2014-03-12T03:28:30Z")
What’s a complot ? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507/3 "2014-03-12T03:31:15Z")
What is a “gas complot” when it is at home? 😕 I did discover that “complot” is a (surely very rare) synonym for _plot_ or _conspiracy_, but that hardly helps. Googling for “gas complot” only got me pages in foreign languages, or with typos in them (though, no doubt, this thread itself will show up on Google soon). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507/4 "2014-03-12T04:01:47Z")
I don’t seem to recall any headlines about oil companies sending their goon squads out to rough up people who said they were mean. You’d think that’d be pretty big news. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507/5 "2014-03-12T04:30:51Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I did discover that “complot” is a (surely very rare) synonym for _plot_ or _conspiracy_, but that hardly helps. Googling for “gas complot” only got me pages in foreign languages, or with typos in them (though, no doubt, this thread itself will show up on Google soon). It’s the word for “conspiracy” in Spanish, French, Dutch, and a few other languages. My guess is that English is not the OP’s first language. Since [Pirrurris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Alba) is a figure in Mexican comedy I suspect it’s Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507/6 "2014-03-12T05:15:35Z")
Do you mean situations like the ones mentioned in this [news story](http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Chevron-faces-suit-over-Nigerian-violence-3188557.php) about how fossil fuel companies deal with protesters in other countries? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507/7 "2014-03-12T09:03:46Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It’s the word for “conspiracy” in Spanish, French, Dutch, and a few other languages. My guess is that English is not the OP’s first language. Since [Pirrurris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Alba) is a figure in Mexican comedy I suspect it’s Spanish. Well, in that case, does “gas” mean _gas_ (short for the American term “gasoline”, that is not used in British English), of does it mean _gas_ (the state of matter, and something in which oil companies also take an interest)? Perhaps this is about [anti-fracking](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/Frak!_Cover.jpg) protests, or something. Incidentally, where does the American word “gasoline” come from? Here in Britain we call the stuff “petrol” which, fairly obviously, derives from the petroleum from which it is made, and “petroleum” derives from the Latin for gooey stuff from rock. What is the story about “gasoline”? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507/8 "2014-03-12T09:32:28Z")
Ironically, both names (Gasoline and Petrol) come from London. According to the Oxford Dictionary folks, some fairly new research (2012) indicates that Gasoline comes from a man named John Cassell, who imported the new substance into London and called it Cazeline Oil after his own name. Some time later, a Dublin man named Samuel Boyd began selling counterfeit Cazeline. When Cassell found out about it, Boyd changed the name from Cazeline to Gazeline. They ended up going to court, and Boyd claimed that he had coined the word Gazeline himself. The courts didn’t believe him, so Cazeline went back to being the “correct” spelling. In the 1860s in the U.S., Congress declared a tax on the oil, and spelled it Gasoline. Over time, the “correct” spelling of Cazeline fell out of favor and the incorrect spelling of Gasoline became the standard. Other spellings (like Gasolene) were also common. Usage of the word Cazeline died out in the 1920s. The word Petrol can be traced back to British wholesaler Carless, Capel & Leonard, who marketed it as a solvent in the 1870s. They tried to trademark the name later, but by then the word was in common use and the registration was not allowed. More info in the Oxford Dictionary blog article here: > **[Oxford Languages | The Home of Language Data](https://languages.oup.com/)** > > Explore Oxford Languages, the home of world-renowned language data. Wikipedia article: > **[Gasoline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline#Etymology_and_terminology)** > > Gasoline (North American English; /ˈɡæsəliːn/) or petrol (Commonwealth English except Canada; /ˈpɛtrəl/) (see § Etymology) is a transparent, slight yellowish petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. On average, U.S. refineries produce, from a barrel of crud... ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507/9 "2014-03-12T11:56:31Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > The word Petrol can be traced back to British wholesaler Carless, Capel & Leonard, who marketed it as a solvent in the 1870s. I guess the senior partner didn’t have any other use for it, huh? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gas-complot/683507/10 "2014-03-12T12:57:16Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It’s the word for “conspiracy” in Spanish, French, Dutch, and a few other languages. My guess is that English is not the OP’s first language. Since [Pirrurris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Alba) is a figure in Mexican comedy I suspect it’s Spanish. The way OP phrases it it could be a mistranslation of “boycott” as well. I suppose we would need him/her to come back and explain.