Etymology

Jell-O

Today it means: A brand of dessert made from gelatin. Full definition →

Latin gelō
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromgelō“to freeze, cause to congeal”
  2. English todayJell-O

Trademarked by Pearle Bixby Wait and named by his wife, May Wait. Clipping of gelatin and jelly, both ultimately from Latin gelō (“to freeze, cause to congeal”), following a then relatively popular trend in the United States to add “O” to the end of products, which according to The Dictionary of Trade Names Origins started because the letter is pleasing to the eye. By surface analysis, jell (“jelly”) + -o.

Words from the same roots

Latingelō all →

gelatin

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.