surprisingly eponymous

reesetee commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Great idea, rolig! How about diesel, bloomers, sideburns, chauvinism?

December 5, 2007

rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Thanks for the suggestions, reesetee! I didn't know about sideburns being eponymous – in fact, chiastically eponymous! Definitely going on the list.

December 5, 2007

reesetee commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Forgot about macadam, but I see you've already added it in another form. :-)

December 6, 2007

sionnach commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

tawdry, petrel, dunce?

December 16, 2007

rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

These are great, Sionnach! And the saints' reference reminded me of yet another favorite concealed eponym, maudlin - or I suppose this is ultimately a toponym, fram Magdala, but since the word comes directly from Mary Magdalene, I suppose we can consider it an eponym, too.

December 16, 2007

minerva commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Nimrod, anyone?

December 16, 2007

chained_bear commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Did you add bedlam (from "Bethlehem," a hospital in London) and I just missed it? (I'm drugged up on Benadryl, sorry...)

December 16, 2007

rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

I'll have to think about Nimrod, Minerva. I know who he was (in Genesis), but how would you use the word as a common noun? If you mean in the sense of "hunter", isn't that sort of like using "Hercules" to mean a strong man? I suppose it's an eponym, but really it strikes me more as a simple ... (now I can't think of the name of the trope, sort of the reverse of personification).

C_b, bedlam is a great word, but it's a toponym, not an eponym. Thanks for the suggestions, though!

December 16, 2007

rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Hope you're feeling better soon, c_b!

December 16, 2007

minerva commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Ammonia, boycott, mausoleum?

December 16, 2007

minerva commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

You're right; Nimrod is the reverse of the personification. What is that called?

December 16, 2007

skipvia commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Neato! How about amp, volt, and ohm? (The three elves that make electricity go...)

Then there's decibel and hertz.

December 16, 2007

ravages commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Benz

Ford

Diesel I think is also eponymous

December 16, 2007

sionnach commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

algorithm. other saint-derived names: filbert, marigold.

Also orrery, cardigan (and if you want to include slightly more obscure figures from the crimean war, there's raglan and balaclava).

There is a host of botanical eponyms: poinsettia, fuchsia, freesia, frangipani, magnolia, loganberry, wisteria, sequoia

Then the dessert items: pavlova, peach melba, praline. Perhaps accompanied by a nice chateaubriand, some beef stroganoff or turkey tetrazzini and a nice Caesar salad.

The latter item naturally is best consumed during the months of July or August.

December 16, 2007

sionnach commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

By the way, any list including ohm should include the mho. Or perhaps its modern alter ego, the siemens.

But scientific units probably deserve a list unto themselves. Where Millihenry and Millisiemens, and all the other thoroughly modern millis can hang out together in harmony.

December 16, 2007

sionnach commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

I have minor reservations about the applicability of the qualification surprisingly (appearing in the list name) to some of the words on the list.

In particular, those eponyms consisting simply of the person's name, with no modification, (e.g. boycott, wellington, sandwich, lynch, mackintosh, macgyver) seem immediately identifiable as such.

But I quibble. This fine list is not mine, so I will stop carping now.

December 16, 2007

sionnach commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

prosopopoeia? (e.g. Nimrod for mighty hunter)

December 16, 2007

rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Sionnach, you are absolutely right. I started this list with the idea of unearthing eponyms, but there's nothing to unearth with "macgyver", at least not at present. Maybe it will be surpisingly eponymous in 50 years, when a woman asks her wife, "Honey, will you see if you can macgyver something? The britney's made a bushasco of it all!"

But I should probably do some culling. Techniquely, words like wellington and mackintosh aren't surprisingly eponymous, because we feel them as eponyms, though we may be surprised about who is behind them (boycott certainly fits in this category): this class of words I am going to keep. But most plant words named after people (e.g. forsythia, poinsettia) are obvious eponyms and we can fairly guess about the role of the person involved. Now, magnolia I might add, because I wouldn't have guessed that there was a Pierre Magnol who discovered or developed this flower. By the same token, frangipane makes it in. But I think I might change wellington to wellies. Mackintosh (the raincoat, not the apple or the Apple), chesterfield, etc. which have become ordinary words used without reflection on who lent them their names, I think I'll keep.

But it's all becomes pretty subjective at a certain point.

December 16, 2007

rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Sionnach, thanks, too, for the great suggestions. I think the calendar words do belong here, even those named after divinities (which includes the days of the week, of course). Names of dishes, however delicious, do not, I'm afraid, unless one would not immediately realize they are named after someone. Also, I think I'm going to pass on joule, hertz, watt and co. Though some of these have become everyday words, there's no surprise in learning "watt" is named after an electrical engineer.

December 16, 2007

sarra commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

See tsar—for me, when I came across the fact a few weeks ago, the most surprising of all. I had an attack of poor referencing & wondered if Cæsar might not be an eponym at all but a title like Christ, but the OED has comforted me.

December 16, 2007

rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

According to various sources I looked at, prosopopoeia is pretty much the same as personification. Strict personification is when personal qualities (the qualities of a person) are ascribed to an inanimate or nonpersonal being or an abstraction. For example:

"Love bade me welcome, but my soul drew back ..." (George Herbert)

or

"The wind moaned in the trees."

But the word I'm curious about describes almost the reverse situation: when an abstract quality (strength, hunting prowess, beauty, intelligence) is so identified with a particular person, that that person's name stands for the quality:

My brother's an Einstein.

No shit, Sherlock!

You'll need to macgyver something.

There you go, bushing it up again! (I'm convinced the word bush will come to mean "to screw something up massively")

He fell in love with a real Adonis.

C'mon, Narcissus, you're gorgeous enough and we're late!

I'm surprised I can't find any word for this, since it's a pretty common trope.

December 16, 2007

rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

sarra, what's curious is that in Russian and other Slavic languages, not only is the word tsar an eponym, from Caesar, but so is the word for king (Russian, король/korol'; Czech, král; Slovene and Croatian, kralj), coming from the name "Karl", i.e. Charles, as in Charlemagne.

December 16, 2007

reesetee commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Ravages--diesel already on the list. I only remember because I was happy to have recalled it. :-)

December 17, 2007

sarra commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

rolig—antonomasia

December 18, 2007

bilby commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

maverick.

December 19, 2007

bilby commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

salmonella, fahrenheit, saxophone

December 7, 2008

rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

I can't believe I forgot saxophone! Thanks for the reminder. I'm adding salmonella and fahrenheit, too (and celsius, for that matter), though with these the eponymy is perhaps not so surprising.

December 8, 2008

madmouth commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

not that I'd put him on, but there's a guy by name of Wordie

April 22, 2009

chained_bear commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Yes, see also John Wordie.

April 22, 2009

rolig commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

Thanks, for the suggestions, MM and C_B, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence that James and John's surname, however delightful, became a common word.

April 22, 2009

oroboros commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

See also anonyponymous.

November 18, 2009

thalvers commented on the list surprisingly-eponymous

shrapnel

March 24, 2010