I had no idea the word “aadaamss” comes from an old American brand name: Adams chewing gum.
The story is similar to “Kleenex”, which is also commonly used in Iran to refer to paper tissues. In the case of chewing gum, the Adams brand was the first of its kind and thus people went on to call it by that name. (Remember aadaamss-e khorus neshaan?).
Here's a little history of chewing gum which I found on the Net … : – )
The first chewing gum producer was formed in 1876 by the glass merchant Thomas Adams (1818-1905) and his two sons. They named their firm Adams Sons and Company.
As a result of experiments in a warehouse, Adams made chewing gum that had chicle as an ingredient, large quantities of which had been made available to him by General Antonio de Santa Anna of Mexico. Santa Anna, who was in exile in Staten Island, had encouraged Adams to use the chicle to make rubber.
Adams sold the gum with the slogan “Adams' New York Gum No. 1 — Snapping and Stretching.” The offices and factory were on Vesey Street and later moved to Murray Street.
The firm was the nation's most prosperous chewing gum company by the end of the century: it built a monopoly in 1899 by merging with the six largest and best-known chewing gum manufacturers in the United States and Canada, and achieved great success as the maker of Chiclets.
It was renamed the American Chicle Company, with headquarters on 44th Street in Manhattan (moved in 1923 to Thomson Avenue in Long Island City, where the firm had two factories).
During the Second World War many of the facilities were used for packing and shipping war rations.
The firm merged with the Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Company in 1962 and soon left New York; its factories in Long Island City closed in 1981.
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