Date: Wed, 5 Apr 1995 13:22:33 EDT From: Terry Lynn Irons Subject: Re: names to nouns > > >Wouldn't Machiavelli and Hamburg be the eponyms of 'Machiavellian' and 'ham- > >burger' rather than the latter being eponyms? I think of 'eponym' as being kin to 'namesake' rather than to its converse, which is what we need here. Larry > Perhaps in ignorance I have tended to use 'eponym' to refer to the noun derived from the name. In fact, the second entry in AHD, 3rd, states that an eponym is "A name of a drug, structure, or disease based on or derived from the name of a person." The eytmology, I would suggest, supports that latter usage over the first, that is epi + onoma, after named. The thing is named after the person, hence is an epi onoma or eponym. Terry -- (*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*) Terry Lynn Irons t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]msuacad.morehead-st.edu Voice Mail: (606) 783-5164 Snail Mail: UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351 (*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)