I guess the title says it all.
I mean, going from possessive to plural completely changes the meaning. What gives?
The chips themselves are called Pringles so one of them is a Pringle. They aren’t meant to be chips owned by or made by someone names Pringle.
According to Wikipedia, there never was an apostrophe.
I’ve never heard of Pringles having an apostrophe, either, but here’s an image with one. (Though I cannot confirm that that is original packaging.)
On further research, according to Wikia, the apostrophe was in the logo from 1967-1986.
Nice find.
As for why, I just assume some sort of linguistic drift, with the chips becoming known as Pringles themselves, so might as well have the logo and name reflect the colloquial usage.
Well, okay, but we have still always been at war with Eastasia. :mad:
It was simply a design decision. Removing the apostrophe makes for a “cleaner” logo,
Like Tim Hortons, I kind of wondered if it was to avoid dual labeling in French for Canada.
More importantly, what are Pringles? I’ve never seen a potato chip with that texture. Are they made from a mashed potato paste or something? They aren’t the normal sliced and cooked chip.
I’ve bought them. Its been 10 years or more ago. Ruffles are so much better.
They are no longer called potato chips, they are potato crisps, basically mushed up potato dough. I’m guessing that’s also when they dropped the apostrophe.
They are made from a slurry of potato and other grains that are pressed into shape. A single Pringle is 42% potato, according to the Wikipedia article.
I have been told that the name comes from a Pringle street in Cincinnati.
I want to know when Dr Pepper dropped the period.
(42% potato. Dear god in 'eaven.)
I suspected that was the case 25 years ago. We didn’t have wikipedia to confirm it back then. Thats one of the reasons we rarely bought Pringles. They don’t fill you up. Its too easy to eat and eat. Too many empty calories and salt.
Just think of the savings in printing labels. Multiplied by a billion labels you are saving nontrivial money.
Brian
That’s pretty much any snack food, though. It doesn’t really much matter that it’s not all potato. That wouldn’t make it particularly healthier or anything.
When Mr. Pringle died, his possessions, namely the chips, ceased to be bogarted by Mr. Pringle, and then it just became a proper noun for a certain kind of food chip.
How they make Pringles:
(From Discovery - How it's Made)