What is an eponym?

Eponym is a person after whom a place, invention, etc. is named. For example, the word maverick comes from Samuel Maverick who was a cattle rancher is the old west. For some reason, he refused to brand his cows. As a result many of them were stolen. So, nowadays a maverick is someone who goes against the established norm. Eponym is the adjective form. The noun form is eponymous. Another eponymous word is galvanize. It comes from the Italian inventor, Luigi Galvani. Yet anther eponymous word is mesmerize. It comes from the German psychologist, Franz Mesmer.

More Info: en.academic.ru

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21 Comments

billyboy915

Correction: Eponym is a NOUN. Eponymous is the ADJECTIVAL form. This explanation gets it reversed.

dmarkc

Charles Ed Thompson, holding two false ideas is doubling down on wrong.

Char

Deduction of what it wasn't lol

Jas Newman

"Eponym is the adjective form. The noun form is eponymous."—Vice versa.

Howard Groopman

Eponym = noun. Eponymous = adjective. Good grief!

tbear

tesla alset, got your back, Tesla!

tbear

billyboy915, 👍

larrywagner

tesla alset, Good job Tesla,

Marcella Kosse

Got it.

Charles Ed Thompson

billyboy915: That was strange; right after eponymous was called a noun, it was used as an adjective. The saying (F. Scott Fitzgerald?) that holding two contradictory ideas in the mind at the same time is a sign of intelligence perhaps needs some modification.