People who lent their names to words
The most famous example of an eponymous word is probably聽sandwich. But there are many others that go unnoticed in daily conversation.
The most famous example of an eponymous word is probably聽sandwich. But there are many others that go unnoticed in daily conversation.
A聽man named Luke is internet famous because of a definition he learned later than most people do. According to a tweet that went viral: 鈥淢y friend Luke didn鈥檛 realise until he was an adult that lukewarm was a real temperature, he thought it was just a term his mum used to describe his bath water.鈥� I wonder what young Luke thought when he heard other people using lukewarm, and whether he was disappointed to learn that it was just another way to say 鈥渢epid.鈥�
In any case, lukewarm is not eponymous, or derived from the name of a person or thing. It does happen to be redundant 鈥� luke is a medieval word that also means 鈥渟lightly warm,鈥� making lukewarm literally 鈥渨arm warm.鈥澛�
The most famous example of an eponymous word is probably sandwich. The story goes that John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, was so busy that he could not stop for dinner. He made culinary history by calling for some grilled beef between two slices of bread. The Oxford English Dictionary has some doubts about this anecdote, allowing only that the sandwich is 鈥渟aid to be named after鈥� the earl. The story first appeared in 1765, around the time British eating establishments began serving 鈥渟andwiches,鈥� though, so perhaps it is true.
Another British aristocrat wore a buttoned wool garment while leading the famous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 during the Crimean War. Though his cavalry charge was a disaster, the general鈥檚 clothing style, paradoxically, proved extremely popular. People today still wear these sweaters, which bear the name of James Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan.
Of course the British aristocracy isn鈥檛 the sole source of eponyms. Algorithm 鈥� 鈥渁 step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing some end鈥� 鈥� comes from the name of a ninth-century聽Persian mathematician, Abu Ja鈥檉ar Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. Al-Khwarizmi wrote a foundational treatise on 鈥渁l-jabr鈥� (algebra), and also introduced European scholars to the Arabic system of numbering, which, in the Middle Ages, was called algorism in his honor.
A much later and more absent-minded聽academic gave us the spoonerism, a verbal error in which the initial sounds of two words are switched. Oxford Professor William Archibald Spooner became famous for saying things along the lines of 鈥淭he Lord is a shoving leopard鈥� and 鈥淢ardon me padam.鈥� He disputed many of the spoonerisms attributed to him, admitting only to the time he began to sing the hymn 鈥淜inkering Congs Their Titles Take,鈥� in 1879. The words are actually 鈥淐onquering Kings ...鈥�
We鈥檒l look at more eponymous words next week!