March 12, 2005, 14:48
KallehPrufrocks
Have you ever seen
Prufrocks used as an eponym? I see that it is not on wordcrafter's list. I just read this hilarious article in the
NY Times today using the word. The article is wonderful...and so true! I have seen people order the most horrendously calorific foods, with a diet coke!
I'm not sure about calling the usage here an Eponym. I've certainly heard groups of middle aged men of a certain type called Prufrocks. It's that oh so careful conformance to the social norm, marked only by occasional introspection when alone on the beach. Since most of them live nowhere near the beach, they are not likely to be challenged by such danger.
But I digress. I find his usuage to be more self-disparaging than eponymous.
March 12, 2005, 15:34
jheemI'm with jo on this one. I think it's just a matter of calling somebody after the name of the character,
Alfred J Prufrock, in the Eliot poem.
March 13, 2005, 00:34
arnieI suppose it is an eponym, although one that might not be understood by many.
A similar usage I saw recently was
pooterish, after Mr Pooter, the hero of George and Weedon Grossmith's wonderful
Diary of a Nobody.
Pooterish is definitely an eponym, and what a great one at that.
I don't want to get into nitpicking about what is eponymous, but calling oneself a Prufrock is merely identifying with that sad little man. Saying that some is prufrockian or that their behavior is prufrockish would definitely be eponymous. But it doesn't have the (joonesayqua -- I CAN'T SPELL FRENCH) of Pooterish.
March 14, 2005, 15:32
wordnerdquote:
Prufrockian ... refers to the outlook of an aging, inhibited man who is too afraid of life, of himself and of what people would say and too fastidious to dare, to act. His acting had to do with potential erotic encounters. He asked of his own unpursued ventures: "Do I dare disturb the universe?"
I had a Prufrockian moment when my editor scheduled a recent "light" column I had written before September 11 and which had been filed until a more appropriate moment.
- Martin E. Marty, Christian Century, Dec 5, 2001
I like it!
March 16, 2005, 20:56
Kallehquote:
I think it's just a matter of calling somebody after the name of the character, Alfred J Prufrock, in the Eliot poem.
But, isn't that the point of an eponym? I can't see why it
wouldn't be an eponym.
March 18, 2005, 06:04
jheemThere's a fine line between metaphor and eponym.
March 20, 2005, 11:34
CaterwaullerAnd is it a line in the sand or carved in stone?
March 21, 2005, 08:14
arnie“There’s a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line”
Oscar Levant, American jazz pianist, film composer and actorMarch 23, 2005, 03:17
CaterwaullerMany great artists have, don't you think?