Flipping through the weekly advertising circulars, I noticed a product with an unfamiliar name, Proraso, but I knew what it was: shaving cream. The Latin preposition pro (+ ablative) means "for, on behalf of," and the Latin verb rado, radere, rasi, rasum means "I scrape, scratch, shave." Proraso is an Italian company; the name seems to be an Italian phrase meaning "for shaving." American shaving creams also have interesting names, two of which are Barbasol (from the Latin barba, -ae f. beard + (probably) -sol, from the verb solvo, solvere, solvi, solutum meaning "I loosen, cast off" and Edge, referring to the sharp edge of a razor, but playing also on the expression cutting edge, literally the sharp edge of a razor, but also the figurative on the cutting edge, meaning "up to date, especially at the frontline of innovation." So often that frontline is rooted in the ancient world.
One other shaving product is Burma-Shave, made by an American company that became famous for its advertising. The company began as Burma-Vita (vita, -ae f. is a Latin noun meaning "life"), founded by the father of Clinton Odell of Minnesota; Odell changed the name to Burma-Shave when he created brushless shaving cream. Documented in The Verse By the Side of the Road by Frank Rowsome, Jr., advertising jingles (short rhyming poems) containing puns were painted on a series of six signs posted along roadsides; my favorite: Past/ Schoolhouses/ Take it slow/ Let the little/ Shavers grow/ Burma-Shave.
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