Frisbie

Frisbie typically refers to a historical connection between the Frisbie Pie Company and the modern flying disc known as a Frisbee. The Frisbie Pie Company was a Bridgeport, Connecticut bakery established in the late 19th century. Its pies were sold under the Frisbie name, and the metal pie tins produced by the company became a popular improvised toy for tossing and catching among college students in the early 20th century. These tins—commonly referred to as “frisbees” in informal usage—helped popularize the idea of a lightweight flying disk.

In the 1950s, the concept was commercialized by Wham-O, which began marketing a plastic flying disc in 1957 under the name Frisbee. The product’s name was inspired by the Frisbie pie tins, though the plastic disc itself was a new design. The Frisbee brand helped establish the modern flying-disc market, and the term Frisbee became widely used, often substituting for the generic flying-disc across many regions.

Today, Frisbees are used for recreation and sport worldwide. The flying-disc family includes competitive disciplines such as Ultimate Frisbee (often simply “Ultimate”) and disc golf, as well as numerous casual disc-throwing games and freestyle styles. Modern discs come in a range of weights and diameters to suit different activities and flying characteristics, with standardized specifications governed by international bodies for organized play. Frisbie also appears as a surname in English-speaking contexts, though in contemporary usage the term is most strongly associated with the pie tins’ historical influence and the Wham-O-branded disc.