Well, well. I know a long bank holiday is ahead of us (for some people), but I insist on sticking to writing my posts about the quirks of English. In the past I wrote several posts about English quirks, for examples, a post about lexical creativity, another one about borrowing or loanwords, some Spanish borrowings and some French borrowings, another one about clippings, some posts about false friends I, and II; another one about abbreviations and initials, another one about interjections, and another one about blending. This time I will be writing about eponyms or eponymous words, that is, words who were named after their inventors or in honour to a person or God.
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| From : http://www.slideshare.net/chandramoulidubey/word-formation-26432145 |
Can you think of some examples of your own ? Well, while you are at it, I will illustrate some of my favourite eponyms. First of all, days of the week. Some days of the week are eponyms and they refer to gods :
Monday = Moon.
Thursday = Thor, god of thunder.
Saturday = Saturn, god of agriculture.
Sunday = Sun.
Let's continue with the months of the year, shall we ? In case you hadn't noticed, some months are eponyms given that most of them were coined after gods, goddesses or emperors:
January = Janos, the god of homes and bridges.
February = Febo, the god of light.
March = Mars, the god of war.
May = Maia, goddess of spring.
June = Juno, goddess of marriage and childbirth.
July = Iulius Caesar, Roman emperor.
August = Octavio Augustus, Roman emperor.
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| From : http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/whats-in-a-name-a-lot-if-that-name-is-hodgkin-crohn-or-alzheimer |
There are far more eponyms that one can imagine and many of them are created every day. Here you have some more examples :
- Jacuzzi = The hot tub was named after its inventor, Candido Enzo Jacuzzi.
- Alzheimer = This illness was first identified by the psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer.
- Asperger syndrome = This illness was named after Hans Asperger, the psychologist that discovered it.
- Pasteurize = The Frenchman Lous Pasteur discovered how to sterilize something by heating and cooling rapidly.
- Machiavellian attitude = This behavioural conduct was named after Nicolau Machiavelli . His thought can be summarized by the motto : "the end justifies the means."
- Guillotine = The first Frenchman to suggest the use of the guillotine to kill people without much suffering (regardless of the fact that he was against death penalty). However, he did not invent the guillotine himself, it being invented by Antoine Louis.
- Nachos = These delicious Mexican snacks were invented by Ignacio Anaya (Nacho, that is).
- Sandwich = This typical snack was "invented" by the count of Sandwich, a small town in England. The Earl was a gambler addicted to game and eating a sandwich would allow him to continue playing endlessly.
- Mesmerise / mesmerize : Franz Anton Mesmer had a theory about hypnotism and the energies about human beings. Mesmerizing, isn't it ?
- Silhouette : This word reminds us of Etienne de Silhouette, a French politician that imposed high taxes to the upper classes. Having portraits painted started to become expensive and silhouettes became very popular thanks to his economic measures.
In addition to this, there are some expressions considered eponyms :
Aphrodisiac : Related to Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
Achiles' heel : To honour this brave warrior that was killed by the impact of arrows in his heel, his only vulnerable part.
Adonis : A prototype of men's beauty.
Adam's apple : In reference to the well-known story in the Bible.
Thatcherism : Based on the conservative ideas of Margaret Thatcher.
Well, today we learnt some very interesting eponyms. Maybe one day, you can become the origin of an eponym yourself. Who knows ?
P.S. Can you tell me more examples of your own ? Please, leave more eponyms in your comments.
