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Wordcraft Eponyms |
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578 entries |
We are now the net's biggest
collection of general eponyms! |
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GREEN: items added April 18, 2004 |
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abigail |
Abigail, a
character in Beaumont & Fletcher's "The Scornful Lady"
(mid-1600s) |
a lady's maid |
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abishag |
Abishag, young
woman brought to King David, trying to "revive" him in old age. I
Kings 1-2 |
a child of a woman by a man married to another [a
very rare word, not in OED] |
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academy; academic |
choose your source: Plato's "academy"
was owned by Akademus, or was named for legendary Akadamos,
who told where the abducted Helen of Troy been hidden. |
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Achilles' heel |
Achilles, Gk
hero in the Iliad |
a seemingly small but actually crucial weakness |
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Adamite |
Adam, in
the Bible |
going naked (like Adam) for God |
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adonis |
Adonis, a strikingly
beautiful youth loved by Aphrodite in Gk myth |
a very handsome young man |
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alfonsin; alphonsin |
Alfonse
Ferri, a surgeon of Naples, who invented it (1552) |
a surgical instrument for extracting bullets from
wounds |
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algorism |
al-Khwarizmi,
Arab mathemetician died ~850 |
use of the Arabic number system (rather than,
say, Roman numerals) |
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algorithm |
al-Khwarizmi,
Arab mathemetician died ~850. His name gave us "algorism"
(see above), which led to "algorithm" |
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alice blue |
Alice Roosevelt
Longworth (1884–1980), daughter of US Pres. Theodore Roosevelt |
a pale grayish-blue color |
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Alice in Wonderland |
Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll |
illusory; unreal |
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Alphonse and Gaston |
Alphonse and Gaston, comic strip characters created by Frederic Burr
Opper (1905) |
two people who treat each other with excessive,
often self-defeating deference |
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Alzheimer's disease |
Alois Alzheimer,
Ger neurologist 1864–1915 |
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amazon |
Amazons, a tribe of warrior women in classical legend |
a tall, aggressive, strong-willed woman |
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America |
Mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller accepted Amerigo
Vespucci's (1454–1512) claim to have discovered the New World |
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amethyst |
Nymph Amethyst, when pursued by the god of wine, was changed
into this gem to protect her |
[gem was believed to prevent drunkenness; the
name means "not intoxicating''] |
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ammonia |
from sal
ammoniac, which in turn are salt deposits
containing ammonium chloride found near temple of Jupiter Ammon in
Libya |
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Amphitryon |
King Amphitryon in Greek myth. Became eponym from Moliere's
line, "Le veritable Amphitryon est l'Amphitryon ou l'on dine." |
a generous entertainer; a good host |
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Anacreontic |
Anacreon, Gk
poet noted praising love and wine (563?–478? BC) |
erotic; convivial; such a song or poem |
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ananias |
Ananias, early Christian
struck dead for lying (Acts 4-5) |
a liar |
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Annie Oakley |
Annie Oakley,
Amer sharpshooter (1860–1926), star attraction of Buffalo Bill's Wild West
Show |
a free ticket or pass (compares a punched ticket
with target full of bullet holse) |
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Antaean |
Gk Antaeus,
a mythical giant whom Hercules overcame |
mammoth,
or of superhuman strength |
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aphrodisiac |
Aphrodite, Gk
goddess of love and beauty |
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Apician |
Apicius (Apicianus), a notorious Roman gourmand |
epicurean; peculiarly dainty in food |
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apollonian |
Apollo, Gk god |
harmonious, measured,
restrained |
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April |
the month of Venus, Roman
version of Gk Aphrodite (perh. through Etruscan version Apru) |
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argus |
Argos, a
hundred-eyed monster of Gk legend |
a watchful guardian (Argus-eyed = vigilantly observant) |
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argyle |
Argyle, branch
of the Scottish clan of Campbell |
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aristarch |
Aristarchus
of Samothrace, Greek scholar and critic, ~200 BC |
a severe critic (adj.: aristarchian) |
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athenaeum |
ultimately from Gk meaning the "temple of Athena" |
a place with print materials to read; or, an
institution to promote learning (e.g. a literary or science club, or a
library) |
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atlas |
Atlas, titan
in Gk mythology |
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augean |
Augeas, legendary
Gk king who did not clean his stable for thirty years; Hecules took on the
job |
utterly filthy from long neglect; requiring
heroic efforts of cleaning |
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August |
named by Augustus Caesar
for himself; in this month occurred many fortunate events of his career |
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aurora |
Aurora, Roman
goddess of dawn |
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axel |
Axel
Paulsen, Norwegian figure skater (1856–1938) |
a kind of jump in figure skating |
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Babbitt |
George Babbitt,
character in the Sinclair Lewis
novel Babbitt (1922) |
a business or professional man who conforms
unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards |
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babbitt metal |
Isaac Babbitt,
Am inventor died 1862 |
alloy used for lining bearings |
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Bacchanal |
Bacchus, Roman
god of wine |
a
drunken feast; an orgy |
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Baedeker |
Karl Baedeker (1801–1859), Ger publisher who established a
series of guidebooks in 1829 |
a guidebook to countries or a country |
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bakelite |
Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863-1944), Amer, its
inventor |
tradename of an early,
successful plastic |
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balmy; barmy (crazy) |
most say from 'barm' (beer
foam). But Ciardi convincingly traces
it to St. Bartholomew's ward for the non-violent insane at the hospital
noted under 'bedlam'. 'Bartholomew' contracted to 'barmy'. |
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bant |
William Banting (1797-1878), Eng,
authored Letter on Corulence (1869) |
to diet, esp. a high-protein,
low-carbohydrate diet |
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Barmecide; Barmecide feast |
Barmecide, a
wealthy Persian in The Arabian Nights, who invited a beggar to a feast of
imaginary food |
providing only the illusion of abundance |
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barnumize |
P. T. Barnum, US showman who popularized the circus (1810–1891)
[not yet in dictionaries] |
to advertise or promote by exaggerated claims and
hyperbole |
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baroque |
arguably from Federigo Barocci
(~1530-1612), Ital artist |
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Bartlett pear |
Enoch Bartlett, Am (1779–1860), who developed and popularized it |
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batty |
prob. from "bats in the belfry", but
some sources say it is an eponym from Fitzherbert Batty, a prominent but
eccentric Eng barrister in Jamaica who was certified as insane in 1839 |
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beau brummell |
George Bryan ("Beau") Brummell,
Englishman (1778 - 1840) |
a dandy; a fop |
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béchamel sauce |
Louis de Béchamel
(1603-1703), steward of Louis XIV of Fr |
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bedlam |
asylum for the insane at London's Hospital of St.
Mary of Bethlehem, which popular speech shortened to
"bedlam" |
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begonia |
Michel Bégon,
Fr governor of Haiti (1638–1710) |
a flower common in gardening |
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belcher |
scarf which Jim (Jem?) Belcher
(1781–1822), champion Brit. boxer, regularly wore, knotted suavely about the
neck |
a small blue scarf with white dots |
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benedict |
Benedick,
character in Shakespeare's Much
Ado About Nothing |
a former newly married man who was previously a
confirmed bachelor |
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Benedict Arnold |
Benedict Arnold, traitorous Am Revolutionary general (1741–1801) |
a traitor (I do not find this in dictionaries as
a word, but it is common in the press.) |
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Big Bertha |
Bertha Krupp,
daughter of Ger arms maker Alfred Krupp (husband Gustav changed his surname
to Krupp). Originally 'Fat Bertha'. |
a huge "mobile" long-range Ger gun in
WWI. Now used as a name for a golf club. |
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biro |
László Biró,
Hungarian, its inventor |
ball point pen (trademark?) |
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bishop (verb) |
"From the name of the
scoundrel who first practiced it" |
to file down a horse's teeth
to hide its age |
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black maria |
some suggest Maria
Lee, black Boston woman ~1825, who helped to round those who occupied of the
wagon |
a patrol wagon to round up
criminals and drunks |
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bloody mary |
Queen Mary I (1553–1558) whose persecution of Protestants earned
her the nickname "Bloody Mary" |
a cocktail made with vodka and spicy tomato juice |
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bloomers |
Amelia Jenks Bloomer, Am activist and
feminist (1818–1894), popularized such clothes |
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blucher |
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher,
(1742–1819) Prussian field marshal, defeated Napoléon at Laon, aided in
victory at Waterloo |
a type of high shoe or half
boot |
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bluebeard |
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