ホッチキス

1903 is the key date for ホッチキス as stationery: Itoki Shoten began importing and selling staplers, and Max's company history explains that the American product had HOTCHKISS No.1 stamped on the body. The source form is Hotchkiss, the name of E. H. Hotchkiss Company, not the English common noun stapler. Itoki's own history also places imported staplers and gem clips in Meiji 36. In Meiji office culture, a product name became a general tool name because there was no settled Japanese term for the device. Related words include ステープラー, 紙綴器, 針, and ホチキス. Nihon Kokugo Daijiten also records a machine-gun sense tied to Benjamin B. Hotchkiss in 1909, but stationery sources separate the stapler name from that inventor and point to the E. H. Hotchkiss brand and product marking. MAX, a major Japanese stapler maker, explains this naming on its site. Modern Japanese ホッチキス means the handheld device for fastening paper with metal staples. English speakers normally say stapler; Hotchkiss is a surname, company name, or historical brand, so it does not work as the general tool word in ordinary English. Japanese industrial standards use ステープラ, but everyday speech keeps ホッチキス, and the metal pieces are ホッチキスの針. Example: 書類をホッチキスで留めた.