Lol. Sort of. The etymology of words can be difficult. It is often held that “Gas(oline)” is derived from a trade name for the fuel, and “petrol” is a shortening of “petroleum distillate.”
In some sense these can be “backronisms” where people retroactively changed the etymology.
“Petrol” is first recorded in usage, as far as I am aware, in print ads for a European company selling fuel. When the company decided to trade mark the word “petrol,” it had entered common usage already and so they couldn’t.
It is very possible that “gasoline” comes from “Cazoline,” a term used to refer to various refined fuels since around the 16th century. Another common theory that has some support in usage, is that “gasoline” is adapted from the term “gas oil” which was a term used to refer to the substance and other fuels in various places around the world at various times.
So I at least can’t say definitively which is the “true” etymology or if the word could have come to use concurrently through
Multiple paths as is sometimes the case. Evidence does suggest however that as far as “Americans using the brand as the name” that is possible, but it is fairly certain that Petrol is actually an example of using branding for the name.
Well… it’s “gas,” not “A gas,” but generally in technical settings it is not called gas, the term “fuel” tends to be used or where applicable a more precise term of there can be ambiguity to the type of fuel. Tracing words is hard the meanings don’t always match what we’d think. “Inflammable” means it combusts easily- people think “in” as a prefix implies the same as “un” as in the opposite- but “inflame” is closer to the meaning but still off the root.
“Disinterested” means impartial; not that you have no interest or are bored.
“Enormity” is not being large, it is being wicked; and “minimus” isn’t small or something like that- it means your pinky toe basically. English, wether British/American/Australian/Etc etc has lots of words that don’t make a lot of sense at first glance- even to native speakers. In BE “pants” go on under trousers but in AE, trousers are called pants and under them we might wear.. underpants. So it’s all relative.
In some sense these can be “backronisms” where people retroactively changed the etymology.
“Petrol” is first recorded in usage, as far as I am aware, in print ads for a European company selling fuel. When the company decided to trade mark the word “petrol,” it had entered common usage already and so they couldn’t.
It is very possible that “gasoline” comes from “Cazoline,” a term used to refer to various refined fuels since around the 16th century. Another common theory that has some support in usage, is that “gasoline” is adapted from the term “gas oil” which was a term used to refer to the substance and other fuels in various places around the world at various times.
So I at least can’t say definitively which is the “true” etymology or if the word could have come to use concurrently through
“Disinterested” means impartial; not that you have no interest or are bored.
“Enormity” is not being large, it is being wicked; and “minimus” isn’t small or something like that- it means your pinky toe basically. English, wether British/American/Australian/Etc etc has lots of words that don’t make a lot of sense at first glance- even to native speakers. In BE “pants” go on under trousers but in AE, trousers are called pants and under them we might wear.. underpants. So it’s all relative.