Macintosh

How to spell macintosh

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce macintosh

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does macintosh mean?

1. nounA waterproof or rubberised coat worn to keep off the rain.

Macintosh in a sentence

• She pulled on her macintosh before stepping into the downpour.

• A folded macintosh lived permanently in the boot of his car for sudden showers.

Where does macintosh come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word is an eponym, a common noun made from a person's name. It honours Charles Macintosh (1766 to 1843), a Scottish chemist who, in 1823, patented a method of waterproofing cloth by cementing two layers of fabric together with a solution of rubber dissolved in naphtha. Coats made from his material were soon called by his name, and the word entered everyday English for any rubberised or simply waterproof raincoat. The inventor spelled his name without a 'k', which is why the form 'macintosh' stays close to the original; the very common variant 'mackintosh' added a 'k' that the man himself never used, and that stray letter is the heart of the spelling trap. The same surname later attached to the Apple computer and to a Canadian apple variety (spelled McIntosh), but the raincoat is the original common noun.

How the word is built

• macintosh (from the surname Macintosh)
• zero suffix; the eponym became a common noun