The shoe company Nike takes its name from a Greek goddess.

SPONSOR Get a FREE audiobook and 14-day trial today by signing up at www.audiblepodcast.com/podictionary

When I first became aware of the shoe company it wasn’t entirely clear that its name should be pronounced with that ending “e” but knowing that the ancient Greeks had a particularly high regard for a goddess named Nike who was the goddess of victory helps sort out this little pronunciation question.

In ancient depictions she is shown as a particularly fast moving goddess despite all the drapery and has wings on her back though no sports shoes on her feet.

One of the more famous images of her is a headless, armless winged statue at the Louvre in Paris.

This was unearthed on a Greek island in 1863 and underlines the association between Nike and victory because the statue is known as The Winged Victory of Samothrace (Samothrace being the place it was discovered).

The shoe company was first called Blue Ribbon Sports and took on the Nike name when Jeff Johnson dreamed about the Greek goddess and suggested her name first for a model of soccer cleat.

That was 1971, the same year the swoosh design was dreamed up.

Ten years later Nike introduced a basketball shoe called Air Force 1 which also introduced their air cushioned soles.

But it seems to me that being a company that is namesake to a winged goddess they already had air somehow mixed into their identity.

After all what are wings for?

And then there’s the swoosh. The swoosh is that little checkmarky symbol Nike uses. You knew that’s what I meant when I said “swoosh.” But swoosh itself has to do with air. The first citation for the word swoosh is from 1867 when it referred to the sound of a fishing rod moving through the air as the fisherman cast his line.

Although vigorous exercise involves a lot of gulping of air I don’t know that Nike has ever tried to weave that into its marketing.

It was 1988 when they first came out with the slogan “just do it.”