Heinz 57

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English

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WOTD – 11 October 2024

Etymology

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A c. late-19th-century trade card advertising the H. J. Heinz Company’s baked beans with tomato sauce. The card bears the slogan “Altogether 57 Varieties of Pure Food Products”.

From the “57 Varieties” slogan introduced by the H. J. Heinz Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1896 to advertise the fact that it produced numerous food products. Heinz is derived from the surname of the American entrepreneur Henry John Heinz (1844–1919) who founded the company (borrowed from German Heinz), while 57 was apparently an arbitrary number chosen by Heinz because 5 was his lucky number and 7 his wife’s lucky number; at the time, the company was already selling more than 60 products.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Heinz 57 (countable and uncountable, plural Heinz 57s) (US, humorous, informal, also attributive)

  1. (countable) A thing comprising parts from many different sources; a complete mix; a hodgepodge, a mishmash.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hodgepodge
    • 1994, Bruce Palmer, “Where to Begin”, in How to Restore Your Harley-Davidson (Motorbook International Authentic Restoration Guides), Osceola, Wis.: Motorbooks International, →ISBN, page 13, column 2:
      The next thing to ascertain is how much of the motorcycle you want is there and what condition it is in. Harley-Davidsons have a high degree of parts interchangeability. […] Is the stock 1939 Harley-Davidson you are looking at 100% 1939 or is it 50% 1939 and 50% Heinz-57, or does it only have a motor with 1939 crankcases sitting in a 1972 chassis?
    • 2003 May, Jeffery Zeldman, “The Trouble with Standards”, in Designing with Web Standards, Berkeley, Calif.: New Riders Publishing, →ISBN, page 78:
      Then, too, designers and developers who've taken the time to learn the Heinz 57 varieties of proprietary scripting and authoring might see little reason to learn anything new—or might be too busy learning JSP, ASP, or .NET to even think about changing their fundamental front-end techniques.
    • 2006, Richard S[tanley] Kitchen, “Challenging Mathematical Content and High-level Instruction”, in Richard S. Kitchen, Julie DePree, Sylvia Celedón-Pattichis, Jonathan Brinkerhoff, Mathematics Education at Highly Effective Schools that Serve the Poor: Strategies for Change, Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, →ISBN, page 84:
      Another teacher at Ysleta Middle School referred to the materials used to teach the seventh-grade curriculum as "Heinz 57" because it was drawn from multiple sources: / Since we don't use textbooks, we had to find everything from the manual, the workbook, teacher's manual. […] So the 7th grade math one [curriculum], is like Heinz 57, it's from everywhere and anywhere.
    1. An animal (chiefly a dog) of mixed breed or uncertain origin; a mongrel, a mutt.
      Synonym: pavement special
      Antonyms: purebred, purebreed
      • 1989, Richard Rhodes, “Planting”, in Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 282:
        There just wasn’t any place on the farm for four more Heinz 57 dogs running around. It made Sammi sad, but she had her hands full with her rabbits.
      • 2003, Michael Zrymiak, “Our Guard Dogs”, in And No Mosquitoes, [S.l.]: Michael Zrymiak, →ISBN, page 15:
        Walking into the SPCA [Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] grounds, I was greeted with a cacophony of barking, from high-pitched yelps to low woofs. There were all varieties, mostly Heinz 57s, from big shaggy collies to little sausages in all shapes and colours.
      • 2011, Sharda Dean, “The Tamotsu”, in Even Birds are Chained to the Sky and Other Tales: The Fine Line Short Story Collection, Edinburgh: The Fine Line Editorial Consultancy, →ISBN, page 265:
        "We have five dogs," I hear her say, "All Heinz 57s, rescued."
      • 2011 October 17, Eric Newton, “Northampton to Lincoln—Day 6”, in Lands End to John O’Groats with a Bus Pass and a Dog, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, part 2 (England—from Lands End), page 116:
        Perhaps not too surprising was the fact that there are estimated to be 7 million dogs currently kept as pets in the UK, all descending from over 400 different breeds, the majority being half breeds and Heinz 57s.
      • 2018, Kim Brophey, “Genetics”, in Meet Your Dog: The Game-changing Guide to Understanding Your Dog’s Behavior (The Official Dog L.E.G.S. [Learning Environment Genetics Self] Guide), San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, →ISBN, pages 232–233:
        While humans have been busy creating dogs they desired for a particular purpose over the millennia, nature has continued to do what it does best—designing animals that are simply well-suited to the world around them. We call them mutts, mongrels, and Heinz 57s. But they are, in fact, the world dog.
    2. (sometimes derogatory) A person of mixed ethnic or racial ancestry.
      • 1993, Ruth Frankenberg, quoting Cathy Thomas, “Questions of Culture and Belonging”, in White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, published 1997, →ISBN, page 196:
        If I had an ethnic base to identify from, if I was even Irish American, that would have been something formed, if I was a working-class woman, that would have been something formed. But to be a Heinz 57 American, a white, class-confused American, land of the Kleenex type American, is so formless in and of itself. It only takes shape in relation to other people.
      • 1995, Erika Bourguignon, quoting A (a graduate student in music), “Identity and the Constant Self”, in L. Bryce Boyer, Ruth M. Boyer, Howard F. Stein, editors, The Psychoanalytic Study of Society: Essays in Honor of George A. De Vos, volume 19, Hillsdale, N.J.: The Analytic Press, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 183:
        My father was first-generation American. My mother is a bit more on the Heinz 57 side. She's got a strong Germanic background, a little bit of British, and my maternal grandmother is French-Canadian.
  2. (uncountable, poker) A variety of draw poker in which the five and seven playing cards are wild cards.

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Alice Rawsthorn (2018 June 5) “An icon, despite itself”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-12-26.

Further reading

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