The Possible Reason Some Americans Refer To Soda As 'Pop'

What's that you say? You'd like a can of pop? Asking for one in some parts of the U.S. might yield some odd looks.

Try saying 'soda' instead, because what you call that bubbly beverage is based on geography, and how the fizzy origins of soda unfolded there. Several theories on the genesis of 'pop' exist, but they all seem to suggest it represents the sound made when pressurized gases escape upon opening a bottle. But, 'pop' may have arisen from "pop goes the cork," as written in 1812 by English poet Robert Southey in a letter.

It's not commonly understood why the term pop became popular in the Midwest and Northwest — though Chicago magazine opined in 2023 that pop's linguistic growth is owed to a Detroit bottling company. In 1907, Russian immigrant bakers Ben and Perry Feigenson started using frosting to flavor carbonated water and selling it from the back of a horse-drawn wagon. The drinks became so popular, the brothers built a bottling plant in Detroit.

Now known as Faygo, it was only sold in Michigan until the 1950s. In the history of the soda, um, pop company, "The Faygo Book" author Joe Grimm says the company insisted people call their beverage 'pop.' Other effervescent monikers While the word pop may be from the sound of old fashioned glass bottle lids popping off, etymologists are not in agreement about how carbonated drinks became known as 'soda.

' Some say the word originated from the Italian sida or Medieval Latin soda referring to the saltwort plant from which an.