Did Scotch tape originate in Scotland? Nope, the popular gift-wrapping tape was actually developed right here in the United States!   In 1926, the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company,  (3M) was being a bit rapacious, tried to save a  little scratch,   and started using a cheaper adhesive on their sticky tape! A Detroit automaker ordered some of this newer, cheaper tape to use for spray-painting auto bodies. The automaker complained that the tape was “Scotch” a politically incorrect word that meant cheap or stingy).  

While the tape didn’t have the adhesion to satisfy the automaker,  it was hardly a gefoojet, that’s an unnecessary thing-it had many other uses, as we all know: so the tape was kept in production, and the name SCOTCH just “stuck”!