Definition:
A word that is derived from the proper name of a real or mythical person or place. Adjectives: eponymic and eponymous. See also:
Etymology:
From the Greek, "named after"Examples and Observations:
- cardigan: a knitted garment, such as a sweater or jacket, that opens down the front. Named after the Seventh Earl of Cardigan, James Thomas Brudenell (1797–1868), a British army officer.
- "[Alton] Brown can fill an entire episode on popcorn, teaching you how to MacGyver a nifty, cheap popper (hint: a stainless-steel bowl and some perforated foil)."
(Entertainment Weekly, Aug. 14, 2009) - sandwich: named after John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718–1792), a British politician.
- "Let's not Rumsfeld Afghanistan."
(Senator Lindsey Graham, quoted in Time magazine, Aug. 24, 2009) - saxophone: named after Sax, the surname of a 19th-century instrument-making family in Belgium.
- "When CNN's Jeff Greenfield assured the crowd, "I haven't planted a skutnik here," I stopped him: I had heard of a sputnik, the Russian word for the first Soviet satellite, but what was a skutnik?
"Greenfield directed me to his book Oh, Waiter! One Order of Crow! about the media failure on election night: 'A skutnik is a human prop, used by a speaker to make a political point. The name comes from Lenny Skutnik, a young man who heroically saved lives after the Air Florida plane crash in Washington in 1982 and who was introduced by President Reagan during his State of the Union speech.'
"The introduction of heroes became a staple in presidential addresses to joint sessions of Congress. In 1995, the columnist William F. Buckley was one of the first to use the name as an eponym: 'President Clinton was awash with Skutniks.'"
(William Safire, "On Language." The New York Times, July 8, 2001)
Pronunciation: EP-i-nim
