h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A632990

I was shocked() to find that I'm the only person to have ever used the word eponym on H2G2, so I've decided to write an entry on the subject.

I'm specifically looking for interesting eponyms, whether it be because hardly anyone knows they're based on a name or because there's something worthy of note about how they came into being - the ones I've already done should give some indication. Even if you don't know a great deal about it, suggestions are fine e.g. if you happen to know that shrapnel comes from a General Shrapnel, but not how or why, post it here and I'll dig up the rest.

As usual, general suggestions, corrections, etc are welcome.

There's "spoonerisms" from Mr. Spooner.
And Clerihew's were named after someone, too...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A505577 - Clerihews

Thanks, I've found a spoonerism entry too - http://www.h2g2.com/A546518 . I think I'd rather help get it editable and link to it instead of pulling the rug out from under the researcher.

Got any more?

How about company names which become synonymous with their product, for example Hoover?

How about Rupert Diesel, the inventor of the Diesel engine?

Going back to the spoonerism, am I right in thinking this started with the Rev Spooner, while giving a toast the Queen Victoria, he mixed the words up to say "To our Queer Dean" instead of "To Our Dear Queen", that's the way I heard it anyway. Probably another urban myth that's stored in my brain.

I'm not at all sure about that spoonerism entry. A bit light and completely missing any really good examples ("hush my brat").

Are fictional characters allowed? If so, we could have malapropism and quixotic, though of course, the name Malaprop is carefully contrived from malapropos. "... as an allegory on the banks of the Nile..." "... under the affluence of alcohol."

The fact that you've left out the etymology surprised me. It is from the Greek eponumos which is something like "giving a significant name".

Some are perhaps too obvious, like Jacquard loom, weave, alexandrine and various cities.

Gnomon, I've got no problem including company or trade names such as Hoover, but on the whole there's precious little to say about most of them. The only ones that I can think of worth including are hoover - because Hoover didn't invent it - and spam, because there's plenty to write about, although some might be worth including because most people don't seem to know they were brand names originally.
I'm not sure about Diesel yet because I don't know much about him, but hopefully he's an interesting chap.

Gedge, if it's an urban myth then no-one's managed to discredit it. "The queer old dean" is supposed to be one of the few authentic Spoonerisms.

manolan, I'm not entirely sure about the spoonerism entry either, but if it's there to be used...
I've got nothing against using fictional characters except that Fenchurch is working on an entry that includes literary eponyms from 1800 onwards. Quixotic looks like a good canditate, although I doubt there are many people who've heard the word and don't know about Don Key-ho-tay and tilting at windmills. My current favourite from the fictional arena is gargantuan.
I didn't leave out the etymology - it's there in the first sentence. Are the Greek characters not working?
I'd prefer to steer clear of obvious ones unless I can include something the reader's unlikely to know or correct a popular misconception.

Just to avoid any repetition the ones I'm looking at but have yet to write up are sandwich, shrapnel, silhouette, sideburns, grog, goon, ragamuffin, mausoleum, leotard, lynch, hoover, diesel, spam, thermos, escalator and muzak.

Ah, I see, the ???? are meant to be Greek characters. These do not work correctly on all browsers. In fact, the only really work on IE and only then because Microsoft have ignored the standard, as usual. h2g2 have their page language setting on ISO-1 which doesn't support Greek characters. Strictly, it should be set to Unicode or UTF-8 and then browsers which obey the standard, like Netscape would actually work! Perhaps you could put the Latin transliteration of the Greek in brackets or something.

Gerrymandering?
Boycott?

Manolan, if it's not going to work on a sizeable number of browsers then I'll just ditch the Greek characters.

DoctorGonzo, I can't remember why I didn't include Boycott, but I guess I should. As for Gerrymander, you have actually looked at the entry, haven't you?

Are you suggesting that *I* would stick my big nose in, without knowing all the facts?



Sorry, I didn't realise you had an entry in progress, I'll scuttle off to look at it now. It won't be a herculean effort. (Got that one?)

BTW, Bill Bryson's 'Made In America' may be of use here - I'm sure there are explanations of quite a few eponyms in there.

Did I say Rupert Diesel? He was of course Rudolf Diesel. He originally invented his Diesel engine for sociological reasons. He wanted smaller manufacturers to be able to compete with the big factories that could afford massive inefficient steam engines to drive their mills. He also worked on solar-powered engines and on fridges.

Wellington, Cardigan and Sandwich.

Count Allessandro Volta and frog electricity.

Godot, a very slow cyclist in the Tour de France.

Mycroft,

I'm not sure you should remove the greek, though it does now look much better on my browser. I believe that IE has well over 50% of the browsing market, so I think you may as well go with something that looks really good for the majority of people and just try to be as accommodating as you can to those of us who insist on Netscape!

I wonder if there should be a separate entry, or a separate section, for eponyms in science. I suppose many would fall into the 'obvious' category, but some (like Volt and Farad) may be just different enough that they aren't immediately understood as eponyms. Any thoughts?

Gnomon, I thought about including Godot, but it hasn't really attained the synecdochic level of usage I'd like, and more awkwardly, Beckett gave at least three completely different accounts of where he got the name from.

manolan, as it's pretty hard to find a unit of measurement that isn't named after some scientist or other, I'd say an entry on the scientific measurements themselves might be more appropriate. I also don't particularly like them as they're eponyms that were imposed on the language rather than ones that sprang up through popular usage.

On the subject of separate entries, can anyone think of any unusual toponyms? Milliner, bungalow, clink (as in prison), and doolally are the ones that spring to my mind so far.

I didn't know about milliner. Bedlam is a particularly famous one.