Questions tagged [eponyms]
The eponyms tag has no usage guidance.
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In the field of bookbinding, where does the term "Davey Board" come from?
There is a generic material called "Binder's Board". Which is the board that the covers of hardcover books are made from. In the industry, it is also called "Davey Board". I ...
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What's the relationship of Ursa Minor/Little Dipper to dogs? [closed]
Recently happened again upon the word "cynosure" and noted it's Greek etymology, e.g. from Wordsmith.org:
Originally the term was applied to the constellation Ursa Minor or the North Star (Polaris) ...
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“Shaw” → “Shavian” – why “v”?
The spelling for the adjective derived from the name Shaw is Shavian and not Shawian. Similarly you can find Arrow → Arrovian and Harrow → Harrovian. This strikes me as odd.
First of all, I accept ...
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Should I use "the John" or "the john" when referring to the slang phrase for toilet?
Should I capitalize the "j" in John when referring to a toilet as "the john." The same goes for lazy Susan and other words that are also names.
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Etymology of "Caleb Quotem"
I came across this expression while reading Dickens's American Notes. In context it seems to mean something similar to "all-purpose" or "catch-all," and seems to appear most in English/Welsh writing ...
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What does the expression "in a Pickwickian sense" exactly mean?
I have not infrequently come across the expression "Pickwickian sense".
Of course, I have tried to search on the web, but generally the explanations I have found do not fit well into the ...
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What's an eponymous adjective that is an antonym of Machiavellian?
REVISED QUESTION
Is there an eponymous adjective with equivalent cultural weight and recognition that could be considered an antonym of Machiavellian? I am after the basic idea of an adjective that ...
user227547
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Under what circumstances can the name portion of an eponymous invention be considered a word?
I am aware of great debate over whether a name, in general, is a word in any language. For purposes of this question, let's take the negative side of this debate. For certain, I would never claim ...
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What is the source of the word "keystone" in reference to pricing a product
In commerce, the word keystone, or keystone pricing means the retail price of an item is set at double the wholesale or production cost of that item. I have only really run into it when working in ...
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Opposite of an eponym
What is it called when someone lives up to their name. Their name is Smith and they become one for example.
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Is there a word for someone who is a killjoy yet also "The voice of caution?"
I am trying to find a word/phrase that describes someone who performs a "reality check" every time people suffer from misconceptions or over-exuberance. He/she is the "voice of caution" that prevents "...
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Why is the tendon named after Achilles?
There are two main or obvious possible reasons:
Achilles died of a wound to the heel, from a poisoned arrow shot by
Paris/Alexander. This is sometimes fabled to be the only spot where he could be ...
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"Named for" vs. "named after"
As a Brit, I'm used to the phrase named after being used to say how something got its name. For example, in Wikipedia's List of eponymous roads in London, we read that Addison Road is named after the ...
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Is there a word meaning "an unwanted eponym"?
An eponym is one way to eternal (if posthumous) fame. But is there a word meaning an eponym someone would sooner not have? (One would presume that Captain Charles Boycott, Mr Justice Lynch, and ...
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Is "facebook" as a verb different from "google" or "photoshop"?
I understand that any term, grammatical or not, becomes valid if there is common usage. I'm not concerned about that.
Google and Photoshop are both commonly used as verbs. Given that the terms map ...
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