Recently we told you how Formica got it's name. Today, in our never-ending quest to educate you on the history of what's in your kitchens and baths, we supply another historical nugget. The name linoleum, much like Formica, had logical roots -- only thousands of years earlier. It came from two Latin words for flax and oil. Flax (a woven fabric) was ?lino? in Latin and the word for oil was ?oleum. In the mid-1860s, flax and oil were combined to produce a cheap (yet durable) floor covering known as ?linoleum.? And that's the On The House tip for today.