An eponym, if you don’t know (and even if you do), is one for whom or which something is or is believed to be named. For example, the Bowie knife or the sandwich (for some Earl of Sandwich) or gerrymandering.
From Wikipedia: “A synonym of ‘eponym’ is namegiver (not to be confused with namesake). Someone who (or something that) is referred to with the adjective eponymous is the eponym of something. An example is: ‘Léon Theremin, known as the eponymous inventor of the theremin.'” The most famous use of the theremin is on the Beach Boys song Good Vibrations.
There are LOTS of examples of upper case eponyms, such as parts of the body (Adam’s apple) or names of diseases (Alzheimer’s disease). I’m more interested in those eponymous words that have “entered in many dictionaries as lowercase when they have evolved a common status, no longer deriving their meaning from the proper-noun origin.” Among the nouns that have achieved this status, many relate to energy. Check out this list:
hertz (Hz), frequency – Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
joule (J), energy, work, heat – James Prescott Joule
newton (N), force – Isaac Newton
ohm (Ω), electrical resistance – Georg Ohm
volt (V), electric potential, electromotive force – Alessandro Volta
watt (W), power, radiant flux – James Watt
Most of these are fairly common terms.
But WHY these? I have no idea. The only eponym list I found comparably lowercase is those which derived from products that were once brand names but are now generic, such as linoleum and videotape.
I remember learning them in school.
What about to hoover? Very interesting Roger! I shall always remember this word “eponym”.
Wil, ABCW Team
To hoover is more of a British or European term to vacuum; most Americans wouldn’t recognize it, I suspect.
GREAT post – I’m wracking my addled brain for other examples… came up with Bell telephones but those are company names, hey how about the Colt revolver – or achilles heel?
Oh my mind is off…I’m in big trouble!!!
Great post, have a great week.
Achilles’ heel and Colt revolver for sure. Bell phones were pretty much a brand like Breyers ice cream.
Kleenex for tissues…
Now my mind is going to be thinking about this too.
Great word for E week and excellent information.
There is quite a list when I start to think about it, interesting. Ohm gets a law named after him too.
Scotch tape? And did you know that Rush Limbaugh’s middle name is “douchecanoe”? Maybe that’s why they say it so often about racists and such…
Yes, fun and very interesting. Today I learned a lot about the eponyms!
Great choice to stir the brain, Roger.
Scotch tape, and Kleenex, a Xerox copy are all brand names that the general public wants to genericize, i.e., use the brand name as the common name.
I feel stupid now. I did know some of these terms were from famous people or those who invented them, but I have to admit my ignorance of the meaning of the word “eponym.”
Leslie
abcw team
This is a fun game to play..I never knew the word eponym either. Thanks for sharing. cheers.
That is a good one to use in my physics class!
I agree with Hildred. Definitely a brain-stirrer, and I must admit my brain needed stirring. Thanks, Roger! Always fun to see what you come up with, and how much of it involves music. I don’t remember the instrument named theremin but I certainly remember the Beach Boys from the 60s, and their Good Vibrations.
K
Well I have to join with Leslie on this. I did not know the word ‘eponym’. How could I have missed this in school. Shame on me. How about ‘Biro’? That is/was the British name for a ball point pen.
I was transported back to my classroom in school and all the agony which went with learning all these laws!! I did enjoy learning a new word and your commentary on eponymous words.
Reminds me of seventh grade science. All the hertz and volts and watts….
Interesting and educative post as always!
I think my name is Alzheimer, I wanted to write something, but I forgot !
Hahaha, my name is Rivet but we did not invent the famous rivet that holds two things together, and I am definitely not “a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end” and a buck-tail on the other end.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivet#Friction-lock_rivet
🙂
By the way, the strange openings in the concrete walls of the Eureka building are windows.
Well now I’m going to be thinking about some eponyms. Maybe Crayola.
Ann
Hard to keep up with eponyms, especially when dealing with more than one language. I remember returning to Holl. after 12 years, and with food they kept referring to “joule.” When asking what the word meant, they casually responded, “Oh we changed how we measure how much energy a food substance has. But you knew that.” “Uh…no, I was gone…” You can imagine a whole discussion came out of the joule:)
Any thing that is Law of something sends me a brain fog. honest.
Huh. I use those units constantly but I never noticed that they were lower case eponym.
I’ve got one for the trivia champ: what is the metric unit of weight and the English unit of mass? (Wikipedia has it wrong on their units page.)
I always look forward to your posts enthusiastically…so much to learn!
Interesting post. I learned a new word today – eponym. The only one I knew was newton. Thanks for sharing.
This was an interesting post. I knew the origin of some of these eponyms, but not all. Blessings!
Fascinating! I never knew where some of these terms originated.