Lorillard

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The name of a historic American tobacco manufacturer, P. Lorillard Company, known for brands such as Old Gold and Newport cigarettes
2. A surname and corporate name associated with P. Lorillard, the oldest tobacco company in the United States, founded in New York in the eighteenth century
3. Refers to the Lorillard family or the tobacco firm they established, which produced cigarettes and snuff for generations before merging into other companies

Etymology: Lorillard is a surname rather than a coined word, and the company took its name from the family that founded it. Pierre Abraham Lorillard, a Huguenot who had fled France, set up a snuff and tobacco business in New York City in 1760, and the firm grew into one of the oldest tobacco manufacturers in the United States. The name traces back to the French Lorillard family, whose ancestors were Huguenot refugees who settled in New York after France revoked the Edict of Nantes. The company's history includes a notable early product line: its Old Gold brand, introduced in 1926, became one of the best-known cigarettes of the early twentieth century and helped establish the company's name in American consumer culture. Lorillard was later acquired and reorganized several times, and the name eventually passed into the hands of Reynolds American, which remains the parent of the brand today.