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ArchivesRe: Estee?
in reply to a message by Eleanor
I think you are a little confused. I don't believe that there IS any "French cosmetic company" named Estee. The cosmetics company is Estee Lauder, which is named after its founder, Estee Lauder. Both the person and the compnay were American, not French. A bio of her on the Web includes the following first paragraph:
The early part of the Estee Lauder biography is a mystery. Voting records has her birth date recorded as July 1, 1908, whereas her family says she was born in 1906. She was born as Josephine Esther Mentzer, the youngest of nine kids to immigrants Max and Rose Schotz Mentzer. Her family called her Esty that became Estee after a school official misspelled it as such. They lived in the apartment above her father's hardware store in Queens, New York.
I believe that Ms. Lauder adopted the "Frenchified" pronunciation of "es-TAY" precisely because she thought it was more "elegant" than "Es-tea" and so would be better for business. But she invented that pronunciation herself. The original Jewish pet form was probably pronounced to rhyme with "testy" or "chesty". :)
The early part of the Estee Lauder biography is a mystery. Voting records has her birth date recorded as July 1, 1908, whereas her family says she was born in 1906. She was born as Josephine Esther Mentzer, the youngest of nine kids to immigrants Max and Rose Schotz Mentzer. Her family called her Esty that became Estee after a school official misspelled it as such. They lived in the apartment above her father's hardware store in Queens, New York.
I believe that Ms. Lauder adopted the "Frenchified" pronunciation of "es-TAY" precisely because she thought it was more "elegant" than "Es-tea" and so would be better for business. But she invented that pronunciation herself. The original Jewish pet form was probably pronounced to rhyme with "testy" or "chesty". :)
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That is fascinating!
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