Cheering

Cheerful is the uttering or making of sounds encouraging, stimulating or exciting to action, indicating approval or acclaiming or welcoming persons, announcements of events and the like.

The word cheer meant originally face, countenance, expression, and came through Old French into Middle English in the 13th century from Low Latin cara, head; this is generally referred to the Greek καρα;. Cara is used by the 6th-century poet Flavius Cresconius Corippus, Postquam venere verendam Caesilris ante caram (In Laud em Justini Minoris). Cheer was at first qualified with epithets, both of joy and gladness and of sorrow; compare She thanked Dyomede for ale ... his gode chere (Chaucer, Troylus) with If they sing ... tis with so dull a cheere (Shakespeare, Sonnets, xcvii.). An early transference in meaning was to hospitality or entertainment, and hence to food and drink, good cheer. The sense of a shout of encouragement or applause is a late use. Defoe (Captain Singleton) speaks of it as a sailor's word, and the meaning does not appear in Johnson.

Cheer (brand)

Cheer is a laundry detergent sold in the United States and Canada. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble.

It was introduced in 1950, and after a slight reformulation in 1952, was a highly successful follow up to P&G's Tide product from 1948-49.

Cheer is recognized for its distinctive blue granules. The 1952 formula ("Blue-Magic Whitener") was designed to clean as well as perform bluing, which makes white clothing look whiter (this was traditionally a separate process). Magazine and television ads at the time proclaimed, "...washes clothes so clean, so white, you don't need bluing or bleach!" This was well known as a sponsor of I Love Lucy. Kinescopes exist of 1950s soap opera episodes with commercials for Cheer still intact, it being a sponsor of shows like The Brighter Day.

In the 1960s, the brand was repositioned as "All Temperature Cheer" or as it was also known, "All-Tempa-Cheer", as it was formulated to clean clothes effectively in all water temperatures.

The brand is currently known as "Cheer Colorguard" and "Cheer Brightclean."