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Eponyms (non-character) from writings

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January 17, 2005, 10:38
wordcrafter
Eponyms (non-character) from writings
Many eponyms are the names of characters in literature, including mythology and the bible. We can speak of a Hercules or a hermaphrodte, a Judas or a Jonah, a milquetoast or a munchkin.

From the world of writings we also have occasional eponyms that are not merely character names. Obviously, an author's name can used to mean "written by or in the style of": a shakespearean sonnet. A few of these non-character eponyms have a larger sense. This week we'll look at some of them, familiar and unfamiliar.

Baedeker – A guidebook to countries or a country; more generally, a guidebook to places
[after Karl Baedeker, 1801-1859, who published a series of travel guidebooks]
January 17, 2005, 10:44
jheem
Baedekers have kept their price, and utility. Folks collect them, and I enjoy reading them. It's interesting to see what was to be seen in the tourist scene of a century ago. Here's a nice article.
January 18, 2005, 22:32
wordcrafter
Boswell – an assiduous and devoted recorder of another's life, words and deeds.
[after James Boswell (1740-1795), renowned as biographer of Samuel Johnson] In 2002 the Supreme Court of India (at §12) quoted in full this bogus Chief Seattle speech, with high praise, stating, "The reply is profound. It is beautiful. It is timeless. It contains the wisdom of the ages. It is the first ever and the most understanding statement on environment. The whole of it is worth quoting as any extract from it is to destroy its beauty."
January 19, 2005, 22:05
wordcrafter
During James Polk's 1844 campaign for US president, the Ithaca Chronicle, in upstate New York, published blockbuster excerpts from Roorback's Tour through the Western and Southern States in 1836. Baron Von Roorback had told of meeting a group of slave traders, noting, "Forty of these unfortunate beings had been purchased, I was informed, of the Hon. J. K. Polk, the present speaker of the house of representatives; the mark of the branding iron, with the initials of his name on their shoulders distinguishing them from the rest."

The Chronicle had made a total fabrication. No such Baron existed; no such book existed; the extract was lifted from a recent travel-book by George W. Featherstonhaugh, and altered by inserting Polk's name and shifting the locale to near Polk's home. So today's eponym, the name of an author, is uniquely that of an author who never existed.

roorback (or roorbach) – a defamatory lie, put out to smear a politician
A longer Mencken extract (ellipses omitted), leading up to his above sentence, will certainly be amusing, and it may be timely. For Dan Rather of CBS News, following controversy over a false news story he aired, has recently announced that he will be taking early retirement

For example, the problem of false news. How does so much of it get into the American newspapers, even the good ones? [The checkers], facing the elemental professional problem of distinguishing between true news and false, turned out to be incompetent. Obviously, the way to diminish such failures in future is not to adopt sonorous platitudes borrowed from the realtors, the morticians, the sanitary plumbers and the Kiwanis, but to undertake an overhauling of the faulty technic, and of the incompetent personnel responsible for it. I don't think it will make demands that are impossible. The bootlegging, legal or delicatessen professions, confronted by like demands, would quickly furnish the talent necessary to meet them; I see no reason why the profession of journalism should not measure up as well.

When the means are readily at hand, [the news editor] often attempts to check it, and sometimes even rejects it. But when such checking presents difficulties – in other words, when deceit is especially easy, and hence should be guarded against most vigilantly – he succumbs nine times out of ten, and without a struggle. It was precisely by this process that the editors of the Times made that paper ridiculous. In the face of great improbabilities, they interpreted their inability to dispose of them as a license to accept them as truth. Journalism will be a sounder and more dignified profession when a directly contrary interpretation of the journalist's duty prevails. There will then be less news in the papers, but it will at least have the merit of being true.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter,
January 20, 2005, 08:36
Kalleh
A longer Mencken extract (ellipses omitted), leading up to his above sentence, will certainly be amusing, and it may be timely. For Dan Rather of CBS News, following controversy over a false news story he aired, has recently announced that he will be taking early retirement

And of course, the same occurs on both sides of the aisle.
January 20, 2005, 11:28
arnie
quote:
the same occurs on both sides of the aisle.
I assume this is an Americanism and refers to the Senate or House of Representatives?

If I were to see this out of context I'd assume it was referring to the wedding tradition which has the bride's family sitting on one side of the aisle of a church, with the bridegroom's family on the other.

(Especially as the post was made by Kalleh!) Smile


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
January 20, 2005, 19:22
wordcrafter
pasquinade – a satire or lampoon, esp. one ridiculing a specific person. verb: to ridicule with a pasquinade (pasquin; pasquil – rarer terms; same meanings; can also mean 'one who lampoons')

In 1501, an ancient statute was unearthed and set up in a public square in Rome. Folks took to posting lampoons and satirical verses on the statue, which they nicknamed "Pasquino" after some sharp-tongued curmudgeon. (Sources differ as to whether he was an ancient or a contemporary, a schoolmaster, a tailor or a cobbler.) Soon the term pasquinata came to mean such a lampoon, and an English form became current when Thomas Nash, in 1589, began using the pseudonym of 'Pasquil of England'.

To give you the full flavor, I must quote a pasquinade at length.
January 21, 2005, 21:38
wordcrafter
Two words today, but I can only provide an illustrative quote for one.

yapp binding – a style of leather bookbinding, with soft limp edges that overlap and thus protect the exposed edges of the pages.
Illustrated here. Use is almost completely confined to religious books.
[After William Yapp, bookseller in the latter part of the 19th century, who designed the style for pocket-bibles.]

machiavellian – cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous
[Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), It. statesman who, in The Prince (written ~1513, publ. 1532) advises that unethical methods may be needed to get and use political power]
January 23, 2005, 22:26
wordcrafter
Knickerbocker: a New Yorker descended from the early Dutch settlers; or, more broadly, a New Yorker
In 1809 an ad in the New York Post sought the whereabouts Deitrich Knickerbocker, an elderly gentleman "not in his right mind." A later announcement told that, the man not being found, his creditors would publish an odd manuscript of his to satisfy his debts. Soon, there appeared Knickerbocker's History of New York.

It was a literary hoax. There was no such gentleman. The actual author was a young and then-unknown fellow, Washington Irving. The work, hilariously satirical, was a great success, and its exact title will give you a taste:So extravagant an origin calls for an extravagant illustration.
May 12, 2007, 17:14
wordnerd
In an interesting site that Richard led me to, a subpage tells that "knickerbocker" comes from the game of marbles. The Dutch word for the game is "knikkers", and marbles would be made of ceramic; that is, of baked clay. The man whose profession was to make marbles was a "knikker bokker" (marble baker).
May 13, 2007, 01:32
Richard English
I remember, just after the war, being treated to a "Knickerbocker Glory" in a cafe, an elaborate ice-cream concoction. You must appreciate that my family's relative poverty and the strictures of rationing meant that such treats were very special and my first Knickerbocker Glory was a memory I have treasured for years.

Now I look it up http://www.ice-cream-recipes.com/knickerbockerglory.htm I find that, contrary to my life-long belief that it was an American invention (my very early memories of getting sweets from the US military personnel who were billeted with us, doubtless made me believe that the USA was a country overflowing with sugary treats) it is actually British.


Richard English
May 13, 2007, 02:04
BobHale
Who'd of thunk it?

The one thing in the world that Richard thought was an American invention turns out to be British.

Roll Eyes


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
May 13, 2007, 03:11
Richard English
quote:
The one thing in the world that Richard thought was an American invention turns out to be British.

It's up to the Yanks to defend their own - and they do it very well. I seek only to redress the balance since the British, as a rule, are far too negative about Britain's achievements and the superiority of so much that is British.

Incidentally, did you notice that, in his resignation speech, Tony Blair - uniquely for a British Prime Minister, so far as I know - actually referred to Great Britain as the finest country in the world? Doubtless he learnt that trick from GWB, since it's something that US Presidents frequently say about the USA.


Richard English
May 13, 2007, 03:29
BobHale
Listen to Blair's resignation speech?

Like everyone else I was too busy cheering the fact that he was making it to pay any attention to the content.

If only he wasn't being replaced by someone just as bad.


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
May 13, 2007, 04:44
Richard English
quote:
If only he wasn't being replaced by someone just as bad.

Has there ever been a Prime Minister of whom everyone (or even a majority) has approved? Even Churchill was out on his ear as soon as the war was over.

I think that Blair has done no worse (and no better) than most post-war prime ministers - although it his crazy decision to drag the country into war that will be remembered by historians, not his positive achievements such as overseeing the Northern Ireland peace process.


Richard English
May 13, 2007, 04:51
arnie
I, too, remember fondly the Knickerbocker Glory from my childhood. We would go to the coast on our summer holidays (vacation) and were treated to one at a seaside cafe. I remember that they were very expensive, usually 2/6d (half a crown) - far more than a week's pocket money. We were usually rationed to one per holiday each because of the cost, although we might occasionally be bought one extra as a special treat.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.