Origin
The use of the word 'lemon' to describe a highly flawed item predates its use in describing cars, and can be traced back to the beginning of the 20th century as a British and American slang. Julian Koenig used the term to refer to a defective model in Volkswagen's 1950s Think Small advertising campaign.
Economist George Akerlof has also been credited with coining the term in his 1970 paper "The Market for Lemons: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism." Akerlof identified the severe lemon problems that may afflict markets characterized by asymmetrical information. A study of rejections of important economic papers noted that before Akerlof's paper was accepted, The first lemon law was proposed in California in 1980.
Read more about this topic: Lemon (automobile)
Famous quotes containing the word origin:
“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed,—a, to me, equally mysterious origin for it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Each structure and institution here was so primitive that you could at once refer it to its source; but our buildings commonly suggest neither their origin nor their purpose.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The origin of storms is not in clouds,
our lightning strikes when the earth rises,
spillways free authentic power:
dead John Brown’s body walking from a tunnel
to break the armored and concluded mind.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)