The word snoop - Ursula Dubosarsky 2009

Eponyms
Is that a real person?

Know any good eponyms? No? Let’s put it another way. Ever heard of sideburns,salmonella, or sandwiches? Ever been mesmerizedor mentored? Do you know if hooligans have good hygiene?

What is the Word Snoop talking about?

All of these words are eponyms. An eponym is a word that comes from a person’s name. Epi in Greek means “upon,” and onoma means “name.”

So all those words in italics came from names of either real or invented people, who said or did something memorable that meant something was named after them. Can you imagine the sort of hair the U.S. general Ambrose Everett Burnside had on his face? Or the disease Daniel Salmon was interested in? Or the Earl of Sandwich ’s favorite food?

These are just a few eponyms, and you would know many more. Often it’s just a matter of looking them up in a dictionary or on the Internet and finding the etymology of the word (which would tell you where the word originally came from). There are hundreds, probably thousands of eponyms in English, for all sorts of reasons. I wonder if you could find out where the names Ferris wheel came from, or bloomers, or Granny Smith apples (yum!), just to name a few.

It would be a strange thing, wouldn’t it, to wake up in the morning and discover that something had been named after you? Hmm, in your case, I wonder what that would be? Or what you would like it to be?

As for me, I’d like to go to a restaurant and order myself a triple-chocolate-caramel-fudge-super-special Word Snoop . . .

FRANZ MESMER