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Eponyms from Surnames from Occupations

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April 10, 2007, 20:26
wordcrafter
Eponyms from Surnames from Occupations
Last week we've seen how an occupation can become a surname. In previous "eponyms" themes we've seen how a person's surname can become a new word.

So in theory a word could combine both steps: a profession becomes a surname, and then a person of that surname gives rise to an eponym. In fact, it's happened surprising often, and this week we'll look at eponyms of that sort.

Our first eponym comes from a Mr. Mercer. A mercer is a cloth merchant, as we saw last week, and by odd coincidence Mr. Mercer's eponym relates to the textile industry.

mercerize – to treat cotton thread with lye, so as to increase its strength, luster and affinity for dye
[after John Mercer (1791–1866), British calico printer]
April 11, 2007, 18:57
bethree5
Masonite is a type of hardboard formed using the Mason method (invented by William H. Mason) by taking wooden chips and blasting them into long fibres using steam and then forming them into boards. (Wikipedia)

Mason = Bricklayer; close, but not as neat a fit as Mr Mercer's...

Not quite as nice a fit as Mr Mercer, however.
April 12, 2007, 08:05
wordcrafter
Excellent, Beth! That's one I'd not thought of! Thank you.

We've seen fletcher, an arrowmaker. Today's fletcher-eponym is suitable for figurative use, as in the last quote.

Fletcherize – to masticate [chew] one's food slowly and thoroughly
[American health-food fadist Horace Fletcher (1849-1919) advocated a mimimum of 32 chews: "Nature will castigate those who don't masticate." Disciples of "the Great Masticator" included John D. Rockfeller, Henry James, Thomas Edison and John Harvey Kellogg (as in Kellogg cereals).]Bonus word:
stonking
Brit., colloquial: excellent, amazing; considerable, powerful
[from military slang: stonk – to bombard with concentrated artillery fire]

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April 13, 2007, 07:10
wordcrafter
We've seen granger meaning 'a farmer'.

In 1769 James Granger published a history of England, with blank leaves in which the buyer could place his own illustrations of the text. The filling up of a ‘Granger’ became a favorite hobby, and afterwards other books were treated in the same manner. Apparently this became something of a fad in the 1880s, annoying those who faced the books denuded by the vandal's knife. The words Grangerize, Grangerism and Grangerite suddenly popped into the language, only to virtually disappear a few years later.

Grangerize – to illustrate (a book) by adding prints, etc., especially ones cut out of other books
April 13, 2007, 07:11
wordcrafter
While Marcus Varro plied his fad
There was not in the shops of Greece
A book or pamphlet to be had
That was not minus frontispiece.
Nor did he hesitate to ply
His baleful practices at home;
It was not possible to buy
A perfect book in all of Rome!

What must the other folk have done –
Who, glancing o'er the books they bought,
Came soon and suddenly upon
The vandalism Varro wrought!
How must their cheeks have flamed with red
How did their hearts with choler beat!
We can imagine what they said –
We can imagine, not repeat!

Where are the books that Varro made –
The pride of dilettante Rome –
With divers portraitures inlaid
Swiped from so many another tome?
The worms devoured them log ago –
O wretched worms! ye should have fed
Not on the books "extended" so,
But on old Varro's flesh instead.

Alas, that Marcus Varro lives
And is a potent factor yet!
Alas, that still his practice gives
Good men occasion for regret!
To yonder bookstall, pri'thee, go,
And by the "missing" prints and plates
And frontispieces you shall know
He lives, and "extra-illustrates"!
April 14, 2007, 13:43
bethree5
BECQUEREL (Abbr. Bq)
The International System unit of radioactivity, equal to one nuclear decay or other nuclear transformation per second.
[After Antoine Henri BECQUEREL.]
Bec·que·rel (bĕ-krĕl', bĕk'ə-rĕl')
Family of French physicists, including Antoine César (1788–1878), one of the first investigators of electrochemistry; his son Alexandre Edmond (1820–1891), noted for his research on phosphorescence and spectroscopy; and his grandson Antoine Henri (1852–1908), who shared a 1903 Nobel Prize for fundamental work in nuclear physics.

Thinking the name looked related to “baker”, I found that Becquer, as well as Bekker, Backer, and Becker are all variants derived from the German bäker, meaning baker. Families named Becquer show up in genealogy primarily in French and Flemish-speaking countries; the addition of –el (Becquerel) or –elle (Becquerelle)— represents a diminutive in early French surnames (little son of, little daughter of).
April 14, 2007, 13:55
wordcrafter
The occupation: lister – a dyer

The person: Joseph Lister (1827-1912), English physician who revolutionized surgery by performing the first ever antiseptic surgery in 1865. He objected in vain to the use of his name for the product noted below.

The eponym: listerine – an antiseptic solution
Originally formulated as a surgical antiseptic; today, used as a mouthwash. We illustrate both usages.
April 15, 2007, 07:54
wordcrafter
The occupation: messner – South German occupational name for a sexton, churchwarden, or verger. (The double s is from association with Messe 'Mass'.) Alternate spelling Mesmer.

The person: Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), Austrian physician who developed a theory of animal magnetism and a mysterious body fluid which allows one person to hypnotize another.

The eponym: mesmerize1. to spellbind; enthrall 2. to hypnotize
April 16, 2007, 08:04
wordcrafter
napier – a maker or seller of table linen; the servant in charge of the linen a great house

Napier's Bones – a set of graduated rods used to perform multiplication quickly. It was an early calculator. See here.
[After John Napier (1550-1617), Scottish mathematician who invented logarithms and introduced the use of the decimal point. Napier published his invention under the title Rabdologiæ (Greek rabdos rod + logos word). Hence the art of performing arithmetic with Napier's bones is called rabdology or rhabdology.]Bonus Word:
Gunter's scale
– a wooden rule, marked with scales of trigonometric functions and logarithms, to solve mechanically problems in surveying and navigation [invented by the Rev. Edmund Gunter (1581-1626), prof. of astronomy, Gresham College, London]
April 16, 2007, 08:45
missann
quote:
The International System unit of radioactivity, equal to one nuclear decay or other nuclear transformation per second.

A Curie, named in honor of Madame Curie, who won the Nobel Prize twice, at a time when there were very few women scientists. A curie is a unit of radioactivity equal to 3.7 x 10 to the 10 disintigrations per second (I don't know how to do a superscript.) Unless the definition has been changed in recent years, it is another way of measuring radioativity. Madame Curie is one of my heroes. ("Heroine" has a different, Gothic novel, connotation.)
April 17, 2007, 07:32
wordcrafter
bowdler – a worker in iron ore

Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825) published an expurgated Shakesreare edition "in which those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family."

bowdlerize – to expurgate prudishly, by deleting or editing matter deemed indelicate[Interesting insertion of the word presumably.]
April 18, 2007, 08:31
wordcrafter
The reader who provided today's word assures me that though it is not in any dictionary, it is well-known to any US-trained lawyer. It is part of elementary training in legal research.

A lawyer, writing a brief, is about to cite a court case. How embarrassing would it be if he cites and relies on a case that was later overruled! To be certain, he needs some resource which, for any case, gives him a list of all later court decisions that cite it. (That may also lead him to cases that agree with the legal point but state it more convincingly.)

Legal publishers have put out that resource, titled Shepherd's Citations, in book form with frequent supplements. Lawyers routinely check their cites this way, and it would be sloppy practice not to check. That checking has come to be called shepardizing (even though it can now be done with various net-sources, rather that by Shepard's paper-volumes).

shepherdize – to update a legal citation by finding later cases that cite that same citationEdit: You got me, sir! Corrected now.

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April 18, 2007, 15:23
Myth Jellies
(S|s)hep(h)(e|a)rdize -- so exactly how is that spelled again? Big Grin


Myth Jellies
Cerebroplegia--the cure is within our grasp