Tales behind goodies

What does "Doritos" mean? The naming of our favourite snacks

Image: Nelly Antoniadou

Doritos, Kit Kats, Oreos… We don’t think twice about the names of these products when we pick them up. It feels like those words have been in our vocabulary forever –and, indeed, the history of some of these brands exceeds our lifetimes! Today, we want to look into the motives and creative associations that gave birth to the names of the world’s favourite snacks.

Image: DENİZ ÇAĞLUSU

The name Doritos is thought to come from the Spanish doradito, meaning "little golden thing". A fitting description for the bright, fried tortilla chips, don’t you think?

Their story begins in the 1960s at Disneyland, where a restaurant run by Frito-Lay began repurposing leftover tortillas by cutting and frying them instead of tossing them.

Image: Obi

Launched by Nabisco in 1934, Ritz crackers were named to conjure an image of luxury in the middle of the Great Depression.

"Ritz" evoked the glamour of the Ritz hotels, offering people a small "bite of the good life" during hard times.

Image: Justin

Kit Kat snacks were born as "Rowntree’s Chocolate Crisp" in the UK. Not very catchy.

However, they were eventually rebranded with a name inspired by London’s 18th-century "Kit-Cat Club," a gathering spot for political and literary figures. And "Kit Kat" was certainly easier to market globally!

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Nabisco trademarked Oreo in 1912, but they never explained the true meaning of their cookie’s name. Theories abound: some say it comes from the French or ("gold"), others suggest the Greek oreo ("mountain"), or that it was simply a short, punchy word chosen to be memorable.

Image: Shyam Mishra

When Mars introduced this nougat, caramel, and peanut bar, they named it after the family’s favorite horse, Snickers.

The bar went on to become one of the best-selling candies in the world, though in the UK it was marketed for decades as "Marathon" before aligning with the global name.

Image: Midas Hofstra

Another favourite treat launched in the UK! Twix got its name as a clever contraction of "twin sticks," referring to the two cookie-and-caramel bars packaged side by side.

It was important for the name to indicate the bar’s unique double format, which would set it apart from single-stick competitors like Mars or Milky Way.

Image: Oksana Zub

The two "Ms" derive from Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie, the unlikely business partners who brought the candy.

Mars had the recipe for chocolate coated in a hard shell (inspired by similar treats eaten by Spanish soldiers), while Murrie, son of Hershey’s president, secured access to wartime chocolate supplies.

Image: Giorgio Trovato

Originally styled as "Chee-tos," the name was meant to be playful, quirky, and easy for kids to say. And, of course, to remind them of cheese!

The brand took off nationally after partnering with Frito-Lay, and later introduced the mascot Chester Cheetah, which became a snack-world cultural icon.

Image: Zoshua Colah

Lay’s logo and bright colors are a signature aesthetic, but the origin of their name is quite straightforward: The brand was founded by Herman W. Lay.

This chip company was one of the first to successfully market packaged potato chips nationwide in the US.

Image: Michelle Riach

The bite-sized chocolate drops earned the name "Kisses" from their smooch-like shape and possibly the gentle kissing sound made by early machines. Today, Kisses remain one of the company’s signature products.

Image: Zoshua Colah

The name of Kellogg’s toaster pastry was a pun on the trendy Pop Art movement of the era, the 60s. Funnily enough, nowadays, some people might struggle to define pop art, but they can certainly describe the snack!

Image: Nikolaos Kofidis

Did you know that Ferrero’s famous spread began as a wartime improvisation? Scarce cocoa was mixed with hazelnuts, and it soon became the crowd’s favourite.

It first appeared as Giandujot, then Supercrema, before Michele Ferrero rebranded it, combining the English word "nut" with the friendly Italian-sounding suffix "-ella."

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Created in Switzerland by Theodor Tobler, the bar fused his family name with torrone, the Italian word for nougat. Its triangular shape was a nod to Alpine peaks that are also a trademark of their packaging. It remains one of the most iconic Swiss exports.

Let’s go beyond Roses are Red

Beautiful words: 12 different types of poetry and their characteristics

Image: Álvaro Serrano

Poetry is as diverse as the individuals who write it—from short, playful rhymes to long, heartfelt verses, with some forms following strict rules and others allowing complete freedom. This wide variety enables poets from all walks of life to express themselves in unique ways. Take a look at the following 12 types of poetry. How many of them do you already know?

Image: Rafi Ashraf

A ballad, in its most well-known form, is a song. And there is good reason for this: ballads are narrative poems characterized by their melodic rhyme scheme, which lends the poem a musical quality.

Image: Veit Hammer

Unlike ballads, elegies have no strict rules regarding length or structure. However, they do follow one important convention: elegies are always about death. These somber poems are reflective in tone and are written to mourn the loss of an individual or a group. Among the many poems that exemplify this, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas stands out.

Image: Nicholas Mullins

As the name implies, an epic poem speaks about things that are vast, complex, and often larger than life. Epics are long and detailed narratives that recount fantastical adventures of heroic characters, who may be either fictional or historical. Some famous examples of epics are The Iliad, The Odyssey, Beowulf, and The Aeneid.

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Popularized by modern poets like Walt Whitman and T.S. Eliot, free verse poetry is exactly what it sounds like—free. At least when it comes to following any consistent rhyme scheme or meter. It can be long or short, and about any subject. It’s freedom in the most poetic form possible.

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A haiku is a short Japanese poem characterized by its particular form: a five-syllable line followed by a seven-syllable line, and then another five-syllable line. These lines do not rhyme.

Haiku are commonly about nature and often include a "cutting word" that divides the poem into two contrasting or complementary parts.

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This playful word describes a type of short, humorous poem that originated in the 19th century.

Limericks have five lines and follow an AABBA rhyme scheme. The first, second, and fifth lines typically contain seven to ten syllables, while the third and fourth lines are shorter, usually five to seven syllables. So, not so simple after all!

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Another familiar word, an ode is a poem that praises someone or something. These poems are not required to follow a specific meter, rhyme scheme, or length, though they often adopt a formal and elevated tone. Ode on a Grecian Urn is one of the best-known and widely analysed odes by John Keats.

Image: Jack Finnigan

A hard-to-pronounce word, ekphrastic poetry refers to poems inspired by visual images or works of art. It does not follow a specific form, structure, or set of rules. What matters most is the emotional connection between the poem and the artwork that inspired it.

Image: Claudio Schwarz

We do not know if this form of poetry inspired the pop band of the same name, but in any case, erasure poetry is a form of found poetry in which the poet takes an existing text and crosses out or blacks out large portions of it.

The idea is to create something new from what remains of the initial text, creating a dialogue between the new text and the existing one.

Image: Rainer Bleek

When Erik Satie, the surrealist French composer, was criticized for writing music "without form," he responded with a piece of sheet music shaped like a pear. Similarly, concrete poetry is designed to create a particular shape or form on the page that reflects the poem’s message.

This form of poetry uses layout and spacing to emphasize certain themes, and poems sometimes take the shape of their subjects.

Image: Glenn Carstens-Peters

As simple as it sounds, a list poem consists of a series of things or items. It doesn’t follow any strict rules, though the last line is often funny or meaningful, serving to sum up the entire poem or at least bring some closure to it.

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Just like the written counterpart of a real echo, an echo verse repeats the last syllable of each line at the end of that line. This repeated syllable can appear either at the end of the same line or on a separate line directly beneath it.