Etymologie, Étymologie, Etymology
UK Vereinigtes Königreich (Großbritannien u. Nordirland), Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande du Nord, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Personen, Personnes, Persons, Eponyme
A
alphadictionary
Eponyms
(E?)(L?) http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/eponyms/index.html
What is an Eponym?
An eponym as we will use the term here is an ordinary common noun derived from a proper noun, the name of a person or place. Words like "quisling", "sandwich", and "silhouette" are solid eponyms. Some eponymous words are still capitalized like a proper noun, so those not capitalized are most clearly eponyms. The important, defining property is that the word does not refer exclusively to the person or place named by the proper noun, as does "Marxism" or "Christian", but is used to refer to a general category, as do "quisling", "boycott" and "fuchsias". The ability to undergo inflection such as the plural ("Pullmans") is also an indication of the strict eponymous status of a word.
What isn't an Eponym?
Many lists on the Web contain phrases and words that are common phrases or ordinary derivations. While the term eponym is often extended to such constructions, their interpretation is usually more a matter of history than etymology, which is our focus. This list is not competing to be the longest list of eponyms but the most accurate in the strictest sense of the word. Beware those lists that include words created by means that apply to any noun, that refer exclusively to the eponymous person, or words that simply name one unique object. Pseudo-eponyms include the following:
- ?possessive nouns used in phrases like Occam's Razor or Newton's Law. These are not eponyms but simple possessives no different from the dog's dinner. Also keep in mind that an eponym is a word, not a phrase.
- ?proper nouns used in phrases without possessives, such as Fosbury Flop, Heimlich Maneuver, Falkland Islands, unless they no longer refer specifically to the person whose name is used (and especially if the capitalization may be dropped), as in the case of the compound eponym Mae West.
- ?normal derivations created by adding productive suffixes like -ism, -ist, -esque, -ian since these suffixes may be added to any name and simply mean "like X's philosophy" or "in X's style" in words like Marxism, Rubinesque. However, such words may be eponyms if they no longer refer specifically to the person whose name is used and especially if the capitalization may be dropped, as in kafkaesque, quixotic.
- ?botanical and zoological names like Hoffmania, Einsteinium and Sanchezia that are not used outside the scientific world, especially if the new term is a proper noun itself. Scientists love to name their inventions and discoveries after themselves and their friends but there is no need to encourage this practice. Those derivations that have been assimilated into the general language and are spelled without capitalization like fuchsia and gardenia are acceptable eponymous. (For the artificial eponyms of names of elements click here.)
- ?simple commonizations: converting a proper noun into a common one as occurred in the cases of escalator and aspirin, originally brand names.
- afghan | algorithm | America | Amish | ammonia | ampere | angstrom | aphrodisiac | argus | argyle | atlas | August | axel
- bacchanalia | bacitracin | bakelite | basque | baud | béchemel | becquerel | bedlam | begonia | bel | benedict | benedictine | bignonia | billingsgate | biro | blondel | bloomers | blucher | bobby | boffin | bogart | Bolivia | Boolean | borrelia | bougainvillea | boulework | bourbon | bowdlerize | boycott | boysenberry | braggadocio | braille | bromeliad | brougham | buddleia | buhlwork | bunkum, bunk | burberry | burke
- caesarean Short for caesarean section, the delivery of a child by surgery rather than through the birth canal. Gaius Julius Caesar, one of Rome's greatest generals and politicians because he was born by caesarean section according to legend.
- camellia A plant with dark green waxy leaves and a waxy white flower known for its fragrance. Named by Linnaeus after George Joseph Camel (1661-1706), a Moravian Jesuit missionary who did extensive botanical studies in the Philippines.
- canfield A game of solitaire similar to klondike. Named after Richard Albert Canfield (1855–1914), an American gambler.
- cardigan A knit sweater that buttons in front. James Thomas Brudnell, 7th Earl of Cardigan (1797-1868), British cavalry officer.
- casanova A philanderer, gigolo, an irresponsible lover who has many affairs with women. Giovanni Jacopo Casanova (1725-1798), Italian charlatan and social climber, who wrote several books, translated the Iliad but is most notorious for his History of my Life, which focuses on his many romantic conquests.
- Celsius A measure of temperature in which 0° is the temperature at which water freezes, and 100° the temperature at which it boils. Anders Celsius (1701-1744), the Swedish astronomer and scientist who invented a thermometer with 0 for the boiling point and 100 for the freezing point of water. After his death in 1744 the scale was reversed to its present form.
- cereal Grain or food made from grain. Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and agriculture.
- chateaubriand A double-thick center cut of beef tenderloin. Vicomte François René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), French writer, statesman, and beef connoisseur.
- chauvinism Passionate, absolute, single-minded devotion to a cause. Nicolas Chauvin, a French soldier in Napoleon's army famous for his fanatical devotion to the Emperor.
- chesterfield 1. A couch or sofa (Canadian). 2. A men's overcoat with concealed buttons and a fur collar. One of the 19th century Earls of Chesterfield (probably).
- cicerone A tourist guide. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), Roman orator and statesman.
- cinchona The shrub whose bark is the source of quinine, also called Jesuit's bark and Peruvian bark. Purportedly named for the Countess Ana de Chinchón (1576-1641), Spanish viceroy of Peru.
- clarence A four-wheeled closed carriage for four. The Duke of Clarence (1765-1837), who later became King William IV.
- clausius A unit of entropy: the extent to which heat or energy in a physical system becomes unvailable for performing work. German physicist Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888), who introduced and named the concept of entropy in 1850.
- clerihew A humorous verse of two rhyming couplets about a person named in one of the rhymes. Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), the British novelist famous for writing them.
- Colombia A South American country and the name of many cities around the world. Christofor Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian discoverer of the America in 1492.
- comstockery Censorship of perceived immorality or obscenity. Anthony Comstock (1844-1915), a world-class book-burner and moral crusader and a former US Postal Inspector who was dedicated to enforcing the ideas of strict Victorian morality; .
- cordoba Basic monetary unit of Nicaragua. Francisco Fernandez de Córdoba (circa 1475-1526), a Spanish soldier and explorer.
- coulomb A measure of electrical current equal to 1 ampere in 1 second. Charles Augustin de Coulomb (1736-1806), a French physicist best known for the formulation of Coulomb's law, that the force between two electrical charges is proportional to the product of the charges.
- curie A unit of radioactivity equal to the amount of a radioactive isotope that decays at the rate of 3.7 x 1010 disintegrations per second. Named in honour of Pierre Curie (1859-1906), codiscoverer with his wife Marie of radium.
- Cyrillic The alphabet used by Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian. St. Cyril (826-869) who, with St. Methodius, invented the first Slavic alphabet (actually Glagolitic; Cyrillic itself came along 50 years later).
- czar The former king of Russia. An Old Slavic variation of Caesar. (See also tsar and kaiser.)
- daguerreotype An early form of photography much like tintype. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1789-1851), French painter and pioneering photographer.
- dahlia A large colorful, thickly petalled flower. Named by Carl Peter Thunberg after his close personal friend, Anders Dahl (1751-1789), an obscure Swedish botanist.
- decibel A measure of the difference between two acoustic levels equal to 10 times the common logarithm of the ratio between the two levels; 1/10 of a bel. Latin deci- "ten" + the surname of Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), the Scottish-born American scientist who invented the telephone.
- degauss To make nonmagnetic; take away the magnetic properties (of), as to degauss a TV screen. Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy, and optics.
- derby 1. A race, especially a horse race for 3-year-olds. 2. A stiff felt hat with a round crown and narrow brim. Both named after Edward Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby (1752-1834), founder of the English Derby.
- derrick A tall, slender structure over an oil well used for hoisting pipes and lowering them into the well holes. Goodman Derick, a 17th century English hangman. The word originally referred to a gallows.
- derringer A small pistol easily concealed in the sleeve or in a lady's purse. Henry Deringer (1786-1868), the American gunsmith who invented it.
- diesel A type of motor engine that runs on heating oil rather than gasoline or petrol. Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913), the German mechanical engineer who invented it.
- dionysian Orgiastic, relating to drunken orgies; wildly emotional, irrational. Dionysus, Greek god of wine, fruitfulness and vegetation (see also bacchanalia).
- doily A small place mat or decorative coverlet, usually crocheted. Mr. Doyley (first name unknown), probably a 17th century draper and dry-goods dealer on the Strand in London.
- draconian Harsh, unfairly demanding. Draco, a 7th century BCE Athenian law-giver known for his harsh laws and enforcement.
- dunce Nincompoop, stupid person. John Duns Scotus (circa 1265-1308), the Scottish theologian whose writings and philosophy were ridiculed by many during his lifetime.
- Einstein A genius (The kid's no Einstein). Albert Einstein (1879-1955), a brilliant German-born American physicist, known for his Theory of Relativity and formula for energy: e=mc2.
- epicure A person of refined tastes. Epicurus (341-270 BCE), Greek philosopher who taught that the highest form of good is pleasure and virtue.
- erlang A unit of the intensity of traffic in a communication system. Agner Krarup Erlang (1878-1929), a Danish mathematician who is the founder of modern telephonic traffic theory that made possible multiple telephone circuits on a single wire.
- erotic Sexually stimulating. Eros, the Greek god of love.
- euphuism An affectedly elegant literary style. After Euphues in the romantic novels Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and Euphues and his England (1580) by English writer John Lyly (circa1554-1606).
- excelsior Curly wood shavings used as packing material. After the American Excelsior Company, which first began producing this product in 1888.
- Fahrenheit A system of temperature measure according to which water freezes at 32o and boils at 212o. Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit (1686-1736), the German instrument maker who made the first reliable thermometers, providing him with the scale that now bears his name.
- farad A unit of electrical capacitance. Michael Faraday (1791-1867), the British physicist who discovered electromagnetic induction (1831) and first suggested the field theory developed later by Maxwell and Einstein.
- faraday A unit of electricity. Michael Faraday (1791-1867), British physicist who discovered electromagnetic induction (1831) and first suggested the field theory developed later by Maxwell and Einstein.
- fauna The animal kingdom, all animals taken together. Faunus, the Roman god of pastures and forests.
- fermi A metric unit of length equal to one quadrillionth of a meter Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), Italian-born American physicist known for his work on quantum theory and the first nuclear reactor.
- Ferris wheel A large vertical wheel at amusement parks with seats around its rim. US engineer George W. G. Ferris (1859-1896), who designed the first one for the Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago, 1893. It was 250 feet tall.
- filbert A hazel nut. Saint Philbert (died 684), a Frankish abbot whose feast day (August 22) marks the ripening season of this nut.
- flora Vegetation, all vegetation taken together or all in a specific region (the flora of Pennsylvania). Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers.
- forsythia An early-blooming plant with long radiating spears of bright yellow flowers in the spring. William Forsyth (1737-1804), a Scottish botanist and horticulturist who was a royal head gardener and a founding member of the Royal Horticultural Society.
- frangipani 1. The temple tree: a shrub with milky sap and showy, fragrant, variously colored flowers. 2. An almond-flavored cream pastry filling. Marquis Frangipani, 16th century Italian nobleman who created a perfume for scenting gloves in the 16th century.
- freesia A South African plant with one-sided clusters of fragrant, multicolored flowers. Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Freese (d.1876), a German physician.
- fresnel A unit of frequency, equivalent to 1012 hertz. Augustin Jean Fresnel (1788-1827), the French physicist who first created polarized light and invented the Fresnel lens.
- Friday The sixth day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. Frig(ga), Norse goddess of marital affection.
- fuchsia An ornamental shrub with hanging clusters of red-magenta-purple flowers. Leonard Fuchs (1501-1566), a German botanist and physician who wrote a popular book on collecting medicinal plants with beautiful drawings of the plants.
- furphy A bit of gossip, a rumor or fanciful story. The Furphy family of Victoria, Australia, manufacturer of Furphy mobile water tanks around which troops gathered and exchanged gossip during World War I.
- gal A measurement of acceleration equal to one centimeter per second per second. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), an Italian scientist who invented the telescope and made several discoveries that led to a theory of gravity.
- galenical Made of herbal or vegetable matter; a herbal medicinal preparation. Claudius Galenus; (129-216 BCE) of Pergamum, a prominent ancient Greek scientist and physician to 5 Roman emperors, whose theories dominated medical science for over 1300 years.
- galvanize,
- galvanise 1. To charge with electric current. 2. To coat iron or steel with zinc by charging it with electricity. 3. To arouse a crowd or group to concerted action. Luigi Galvani (1739-1798), an Italian physiologist noted for his discovery that the muscles in a frog's legs contracted in an electric field.
- gamp A large, baggy umbrella. After the umbrella of Mrs. Sarah Gamp, a character in the novel Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens.
- gardenia A shrub, native to China, that has glossy evergreen leaves and large, white, very fragrant flowers. Alexander Garden (1730-1791), a minor botanist born in Scotland but who spent most of his life in Charleston, South Carolina.
- gargantuan Huge, enormous, gigantic. François Rabelais (1483-1553), French author of satirical attacks on medieval scholasticism and superstition, especially Pantagruel (1532) and Gargantua (1534).
- garibaldi A loose high-necked blouse with long sleeves; styled after the red flannel shirts worn by Garibaldi's soldiers. Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-82), an Italian patriot and soldier of the Risorgimento who led many of the military campaigns that brought about the formation of a unified Italy.
- gat [Criminal argot] A pistol, short for Gatling gun, a gun with several barrels arranged in a circle that could shoot many rounds at one loading. Richard Jordan Gatling (1818-1903), American inventor from North Carolina.
- gauss A unit of magnetic flux density equal to 1 maxwell per square centimeter. Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855), a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy, and optics.
- gentian A European plant with brightly colored flowers or the drink made from its roots. According to the Roman author and philosopher Pliny the Elder, named for Gentius, King of Illyria (180-168 BCE), who first discovered is restorative properties.
- georgette A gauzy, silk-like material with a crêpe surface. Madame Georgette de la Plante, late 19th century French fashion designer (originally a trademark).
- Georgia A southeastern US state just north of Florida. King George II of England (1683-1760).
- Georgian Of or resembling the style of architecture characteristic of the reigns of the first four Georges in British history. Kings George I to George IV of England (1714-1830).
- gerrymander To create a political voting district so as to include as many members of the majority party as possible. Created by American artist Gilbert Stuart after Massachusetts governer Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), American politician who drew up voting districts to give his party an advantage.
- gilbert An electromagnetic unit of magnetomotive force. William Gilbert (1544-1603), English physician and scientist who first studied the properties of magnetic iron ore and invented the term 'electricity'.
- Geronimo! An interjection of exultation uttered on the brink of a dangerous or courageous action. Gerónimo is the Spanish form Jerome given by European settlers to the Chiricahua Apache leader, Goyathlay (1829-1909) "the one who yawns", a Native American who resisted forced removal of his people to reservations.
- Gladstone
- wine, bag, carriage 1. A cheap French wine. 2. A suitcase with a rigid frame and flexible sides. 3. A roomy pleasure carriage. William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), Four-times Liberal prime minister of Great Britain, and a dominant political figureof the Victorian era; a passionate supporter of home rule for Ireland.
- gradgrind A cold-minded person interested only in facts; a bean-counter. Thomas Gradgrind, character in the novel Hard Times (1854) by Charles Dickens.
- graham
- bread/cracker/flour Unbolted wheaten flour, and bread or biscuit prepared from this. Sylvester Graham (1794-1851), an American dietary reformer.
- gray A measure of ionizing radiation equal to one joule per kilogram. Louis Harold Gray (1905-1965), a British radiobiologist.
- grangerize To illustrate a text with pictures from other books. James Granger (1723-76), a British writer and clergyman, who published in 1769 a Biographical History of England with blank leaves for illustrations. The filling up of a 'Granger' became so popular that other books were published similarly.
- greengage A sweet greenish-yellow variety of plum. A compound of green + gage after Sir William Gage (1777-1864), English botanist.
- grog, groggy Rum or other liquor diluted with water. Short for grogram, after Sir Edward Vernon (1684-1757), British admiral known as 'Old Groggy' for wearing a grogram cloak. Later the word was clipped and the meaning transferred to the diluted drink he served his sailors.
- guillemot A seabird. Guillemot, affectionate form of Guillaume, the French version of the English name William though no particular William seems involved in this naming.
- guillotine A French device for neatly slicing the heads off people. Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814, the French physician (!) who invented it.
- guppy A small fresh-water fish popular in fish bowls. R. J. Lechmere Guppy (1836-1916), a Trinidadian clergyman who supplied the first specimens to the British Museum.
- Hansard The official published report of the proceedings of a British-style parliamentary body. Luke Hansard (1752-1828), the English printer who printed the Journals of the House of Commons from 1774 to his death.
- hansom
- cab A two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with the driver's seat behind the passengers. Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803-82), an architect from Hinckley, Leicestershire, England, who designed and patented it.
- hartree An atomic unit of energy. Douglas Rayner Hartree (1897-1958), English mathematician and physicist known for his work in numerical analysis and its application to atomic physics.
- havelock A cloth covering for a cap with a flap protecting the back of the neck from the sun. Sir Henry Havelock (1795-1857), a British general in India during the colonial period.
- hawkshaw A gumshoe, a detective, a PI. Hawkshaw the Detective from the 1863 play The Ticket of Leave Man by British dramatist Tom Taylor.
- hector To pester, bully, push around. Hector, a Trojan prince and one of the greatest fighters in the Trojan War.
- henry A unit of inductance created when an electromotive force of one volt is produced by varying current at the rate of one ampere per second. Joseph Henry (1797-1878), American physicist who discovered the electromagnetic phenomenon of self-inductance and whose work on the electromagnetic relay was critical to the invention of the telegraph.
- Hepplewhite Of or related to an 18th-century English style of furniture characterized by graceful lines, the use of concave curves, and the heart-shaped backs of its chairs. George Hepplewhite (died 1786), an English cabinet-maker who developed the style.
- herculean Huge, enormous, requiring immense strength. Hercules, a Greek hero forced to complete 12 extremely difficult tasks to restore himself in the eyes of the gods.
- hermaphrodite A person or animal with traits of both sexes. Hermaphroditos, son of Hermes and Aphrodite in Greek mythology, who was transformed into a hermaphrodite by a forced union with the nymph Salmacis.
- hermetic Sealed air-tight. From New Latin hermticus "alchemical", from the name of Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes Thrice-Great), the Greek name of an Egyptian priest and scholar known for his mastery of all three domains of knowledge of the time.
- hertz A unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second. Heinrich Rudolph Hertz (1857-94), German physicist who was the first to demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic radiation using a device he built to produce UHF radio waves.
- hooligan A ruffian, delinquent, mean person who does damage. The name figured in a popular music-hall song of the 1890s, which described the doings of a rowdy Irish family by the name of Hooligan.
- hoover A vacuum cleaner (UK). William Henry Hoover (1849-1932), American businessman who began producing vacuum cleaners after purchasing the patent from a family acquaintance, James Murray Spangler.
- hyacinth A bulb plant (Hyacinthus orientalis) that flowers early in the spring with several spears of bell-shaped flowers. From Greek huakinthos "wild hyacinth", also the name of Hyacinthus, a divine hero, the son of Clio and Pierus, King of Macedonia, for which one of the principal Spartan festivals, the Hyacinthia, was held every summer.
- iris A beautiful tuber plant with large, multicolored flowers growing on a single stem resembling large orchids. Iris, Greek goddess of the rainbow; also the Greek word for "rainbow".
- jackanapes An impudent or mischievous person. Jack Napis, nickname of William de la Pole, Fourth Earl and First Duke of Suffolk (1396-1450).
- jacuzzi A swirling, whirlpool bath. Candido Jacuzzi (1903-1986), the Italian-American who invented the whirlpool bath for his son who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis.
- jansky A unit used in measuring the strength of radio sources in astronomy. Karl C. Jansky (1905-1950), Czech-born American radio engineer who, in 1932, first detected radio waves from a outer space.
- January The first month of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. Janus, the Roman god of homes, thresholds, and bridges.
- jehu A reckless driver. (Probably the origin of saying, "Gee!" to get a horse to go.) Jehu, the son of Nimshi, mentioned in 2 Kings 9:20: "And the watchman told, saying, He came even unto them, and cometh not again: and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously."
- jeremiad A lamentation with a prophecy of doom. Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet of the 6th and 7th centuries BCE who prophesied the doom of the Jewish people at the hands of the Babylonians during the reigns of several kings.
- jeroboam A large wine bottle that holds 4/5 of a gallon. Jeroboam, the first king of the ten tribes in northern Israel (died 901 BCE).
- jerican A flat-sided can holding 5 gallons for storing liquids, usually gasoline. Originally Jerry can from Jerry, a slur for a German soldier during World Wars I and II.
- Jezebel A seductive woman of loose moral character. Jezebel, a Phoenician princess and the wife of Israeli king Ahab who convinced Ahab to build temples to the pagan god, Baal, in Israel and kill the prophets.
- jonah A person believed to bring bad luck to those around him. Jonah, Hebrew prophet of the 8th century BCE who was reported to have been swallowed by a whale and thrown up unharmed 3 days later.
- jorum A large drinking bowl. Possibly Joram, who brought vessels of silver, gold, and brass to King David (II Samuel 8:10).
- joule A measure of electrical energy equal to the work of a current of one ampere against the resistance of one ohm for one second. James Prescott Joule (1818-89), the English physicist who established the mechanical theory of heat and discovered the first law of thermodynamics (1818-1889).
- jovial Happy, amiable, jocular. Jove, the English for Jovialis, an alternate name for Jupiter, supreme god of Roman mythology, considered to be the source of all happiness.
- Judas A traitor. Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane by identifying him for Roman solidiers.
- July The seventh month of the year between June and August. Julius Caesar, July 102 or 100-44 BCE), a Roman general and emperor, and one of the most influential men in classical antiquity.
- jumbo Huge, extremely large. Jumbo, a 62 ton African elephant exhibited at London Zoo from 1865 to 1882.
- June The sixth month of the Gregorian Calendar between May and July. Juno, the Roman goddess of the moon, women and marriage.
- kafkaesque Irrational and terrifying. Franz Kafka (1883-1924), Czech author of bizarre, labrynthine, terrifying stories.
- kaiser A German king or emperor. A Germanic variation of Caesar. (See also czar and tsar.)
- kayser A measure of wave length equal to the wavelength divided by a centimeter. Heinrich Gustav Johannes Kayser (1853-1940), German physicist known for his work in sound and spectrum analysis.
- kelvin A unit of absolute temperature equal to 1/273.16 of the absolute temperature of the triple point of water. William Thomson Kelvin, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824-1907), the Scottish physicist who developed the Kelvin temperature scale of temperature.
- kleenex A soft facial tissue. A trademark of a dispensable tissue owned by the Kimberley-Clark company.
- klieg
- light A carbon arc lamp used in movie-making. John H. (1869-1959) and Anton T. Kleigl (1872-1927), American motion picture lighting experts.
- klondike A card-game played alone, the object being to see how many cards can be laid on a row of aces, following sequence and suit. Named for the Klondike, the river and region around it in the Yukon territory, Canada, the scene of a gold-rush of 1896.
- knickers 1. (US) Pants with legs cut off and gathered just below the knee, often worn by golfers. 2. (UK) Women's underpants. Short for knickerbockers, for the family Knickerbocker in the fictitious History of New York by Washington Irving (1783-1859), shown wearing baggy pants with legs gathered just below the knee in the illustrations by George Cruikshank.
- laconic Sparing of words, made up of few words, terse. For the region of Lakonia (Latin Laconia) in southern Greece whose capital was Sparta and whose inhabitants were famous for their spartan, laconic speech. Philip of Macedon once threatened the Lakonians, "If I enter Lakonia, I will raze Sparta to the ground." The Spartans' laconic reply was, "If."
- lambert A unit of illumination equal to the brightness of a perfectly diffusing surface that reflects one lumen per square centimeter. Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777), a German mathematician who first proved that pi (the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter) is an irrational number.
- langley A measure of radiation equal to one gram calorie per square centimeter of irradiated surface. Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834-1906), an American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and a pioneer in aviation.
- Leningrad The temporary name of St. Petersburg, Russia from 1917-1991. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924), leader of the 1917 socialist revolution in Russia.
- leotard Tights worn for dancing. Jules Léotard (circa 1839-1870), French acrobatic performer who inspired the 1867 song "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze".
- lesbian A female homosexual. For the home of Sappho (circa 600 BCE), a female Greek lyric poet, who wrote love poems to other women and was born on the island of Lesbos.
- Levis Tight-fitting blue jeans made by the now defunct Levi Strauss & Co. Levi Strauss (1830-1902), a Bavarian immigrant and clothing merchant, who bought the patent for riveting denim clothes to make the seams stronger from the inventor, Jacob Davis, a Nevada tailor, and sold them in San Francisco to prospectors during the Gold Rush.
- lewisite An oily, colorless to violet-brown liquid used in highly toxic gas weapons during World War I. Winford Lee Lewis (1878-1943), American chemist.
- lobelia A plant bearing variously colored flowers with a bilabiate (two-lipped) corolla. Matthias de Lobel (1538-1616), a Flemish physician to William the Silent, Prince of Orange, before moving to England and becoming James I's physician and botanist.
- loganberry 1. A red-fruited trailing bramble native from Oregon to Baja California. 2. A hybrid of the blackberry and raspberry. James Harvey Logan (1841-1928), an American judge from Santa Cruz, California who crossed plants of the Aughinbaugh blackberry and Red Antwerp raspberry to create the second loganberry.
- lucullan Luxurious, opulent, extravagant Lucius Licinius Lucullus (118-56 BC), Roman general and consul known more for the luxury of his retirement than his service.
- luddite An opponent of progress. Ned Ludd, an English laborer who was supposed to have destroyed weaving machinery around 1779 after being replaced by it.
- lynch To hang someone in a mob frenzy without a trial. William Lynch, the author of "Lynch's Law", an agreement with the Virginia General Assembly in 1782 that allowed Lynch to capture and punish criminals in Pittsylvania County without trial due to the lack of courts in that county.
- macadam A kind of asphalt. John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836), the Scottish engineer who first proposed compacted crushed stone as a road covering.
- macadamia
- nut An Australian evergreen tree producing edible nuts. Named in 1857 by Ferdinand von Mueller for his friend John Macadam (1827-1865), a Scottish-born Australian chemist and politician.
- Mach A measurement of the ratio of the speed of a moving body to the speed of sound. Ernst Mach (1838-1916), an Austrian physicist and philosopher who introduced the Mach number and who founded logical positivism.
- Machiavellian Characterized by expediency, self-interest, and deceit. Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian political theorist whose book The Prince (1513) argues that power is achieved and maintained by sheer determination void of any consideration of morality.
- mackintosh (British) A raincoat made of rubberized material or the material itself. Charles Mackintosh (1760-1843), the Scottish chemist who invented a method for making waterproof garments by cementing two pieces of cloth together with rubber dissolved in naphtha.
- madeleine A small cake, baked in a shell-shaped mold. Madeleine Paulmier, 19th century French pastrycook.
- Mae West An inflatable life jacket, originally one issued to servicemen in the Royal Air Force during World War II (1939-1945). Mae West (1892-1980), buxom American actress favored very popular at the time.
- magnolia An evergreen tree with large glossy leaves and great, white, highly fragrant flowers native to the southern US states. Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), a French botanist who played a critical role in developing the current botanical scheme of classification.
- malapropism A humorously mispronounced or misused word or phrase. Mrs Malaprop, character in play The Rivalsby Irish dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816).
- mansard
- roof A roof with two slopes, the lower one steeper than the upper. François Mansart (1598-1666), French classical architect.
- marathon An arduous footrace or other long and difficult undertaking that is a test of endurance. The city of Marathon, Greece where, in 490 BCE, the Greeks defeated the Persians even though heavily outnumbered because a messenger named Pheidippides ran 150 miles in two days to Sparta for help.
- marcel A hairstyle characterized by deep regular waves. Marcel Grateau (1852-1936), a French hairdresser who invented the style using heating irons.
- March The third month of the Gregorian calendar between February and April. Mars, the Roman god of war.
- marigold An annual plant with bright yellow or orange, multipetaled, round flowers. Presumably a reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
- martin A swallow (bird). Probably after Saint Martin, the 4th-century Bishop of Tours.
- martinet A rigid disciplinarian who demands absolute adherence to rules and regulations. Jean Martinet, French army officer during the reign of Louis XIV.
- masochism The enjoyment of pain associated with sexual arousal. Psychologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing based this word on the name of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-1895), Austrian author of the novel Venus in Furs about the enjoyment of pain.
- maudlin Overly sentimental, uncontrollably tearful. A corruption of (Mary) Magdalene, who wept at the empty tomb after the resurrection of Jesus.
- Mauser A handgun used by the German army in World War II. Peter Paul von Mauser (1838-1914) and brother Wilhelm (1834-82), the German firearms manufacturers who developed it.
- mausoleum An above-ground burial chamber. King Mausolus (died circa 395 BCE), ruler of Caria in ancient Greece, best known from his tomb which was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.
- maverick An uncontrollable individualist, iconoclast, unstable nonconformist. Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803-1870), American cattleman who never branded his cows. Whenever his neighbors picked up strays, they called them 'Maverick's'.
- Maxim
- gun The first single-barreled, water-cooled machine gun that used recoil action to expell the empty cartridge and insert a fresh one. US born British gun manufacturer Sir Hiram S. Maxim (1840-1916).
- maxwell A unit of magnetic flux in the centimeter-gram per second system. James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) who made fundamental contributions to the theories of electromagnetism and gases.
- May The fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, between April and June. Maia, the Roman goddess of spring and fertility.
- meander 1. To follow a winding course. 2. To wander aimlessly. The ancient Greek river Maiandros in Phrygia (Latin Maeander) and now the Büyük Menderes in western Turkey, noted for its many complex windings.
- Melba toast Very thinly sliced crisp toast. Helen Porter Mitchell (1861-1931), a famous opera singer of the late 19th and early 20th century, whose stage name was Dame Nellie Melba, taken her native city of Melbourne, honored by having many edible trifles named for her (see also peach Melba).
- Mennonite A member of an Anabaptist religion that emphasizes pacifism, nonresistance to evil, communal sharing, and a simple lifestyle. Menno Simons(zoon) (1492-1559), Frisian (Dutch) religious reformer who revitalized the Anabaptist movement and laid the foundation for the sect named for him.
- mentor A teacher and advisor. Mentor, Odysseus's loyal friend in Homer's epic poem The Odyssey.
- mesmerize
- mesmerise To fascinate someone to the point that they seem to be in a trance; to hypnotize. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), Austrian physician who argued that the condition of the body is controlled by "animal magnetism". (James Braid 1795-1860, a Scottish neurosurgeon, invented and named hypnotism.)
- methuselah An extremely old person. Methuselah, the oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Bible (969 years).
- Mickey Finn A drink with knock-out drops (chloral hydrate) in it. Supposedly for Mickey Finn, Chicago saloon-keeper at the end of the 19th century.
- Mickey-Mouse Easy, simple, unimportant. Mickey Mouse, a cartoon character created in 1928 by Wald Disney (1901-1966).
- milquetoast A meek, timid, unassertive man. Caspar Milquetoast, a comic-strip character created by Harold Tucker Webster (1885–1952).
- mirandize To read the legal rights to a suspect arrested on a criminal charge. Ernesto A. Miranda (1941-1976), laborer whose conviction on kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery was overturned because arresting officers failed to inform him of his legal rights.
- mogul A very wealthy, powerful businessman. Mogul, a member of the Muslim dynasty of rulers in 16th -17th century India
- molly A popular aquarium fish. Comte Nicolas-François Mollien (1758-1850), French politician and one of Napoleon's chief financial advisers.
- Moonie A member of the Unification Church. Sun Myung Moon (original name Yong Myung Moon (1920- ) Korean industrialist who founded the Unification Church.
- morgan An American saddle and trotting horse noted for its speed and endurance Justin Morgan (1747-1798), US teacher and owner of the stallion from which the breed is descended.
- morphine An alkaloid of opium used in medicine as a narcotic analgesic. Morpheus, the Greek god of sleep and dreams.
- myrmidon A lackey, someone who carries out orders obediently without question. The Myrmidons, a belligerent people of Thessaly who followed Achilles into the Trojan War.
- namby-pamby Weak and sentimental, insipid, childishly simple. A disparaging imitation of a childish pronunciation of the name of Ambrose Philips (1675-1749), author of sentimental poems for and about children.
- narcissism Infatuation with oneself. Narcissus, a beautiful young man of Greek mythology who looked into a reflective pool and fell in love with the image of himself.
- nebuchadnezzar A huge wine bottle holding 20 normal bottles of wine; used mostly for display. Nebuchadnezzar (circa 630-562 BCE), king of Chaldea who captured and destroyed Jerusalem and exiled the Israelites to Babylonia.
- negus A mixture of wine, hot water, lemon juice, sugar, and nutmeg. Colonel Francis Negus, a colonel in the British army who died in 1732 after drinking negus.
- nemesis 1. The source of damage, harm, or destruction. 2. Strong, inevitable retribution. 3. An opponent or other threat that cannot be escaped or defeated. Nemesis, the Greek goddess of retribution.
- nestor A wise old man. Nestor, a legendary Greek king of Pylos, reputedly very wise.
- newton The unit of force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram one meter per second per second. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727), British physicist and mathematician who first formulated the theory of gravity and invented differential calculus.
- nicotine The poisonous addictive chemical in tobacco smoke. Jean Nicot (1530-1600), the French ambassador to Portugal, who promoted smoking by sending tobacco seeds and leaves to France in the mid 16th century.
- nosey parker A busybody. Matthew Parker (1504-1575), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559-1575, who developed a reputation for sticking his nose in other people's business.
- oersted A unit of magnetic intensity equal to the magnetic intensity one centimeter from a unit magnetic pole. H. C. Oersted (1777-1851), Danish physicist.
- ohm A unit of electrical resistance equal to the resistance of a conductor in which a 1-ampere current is produced by a potential of one volt across its terminals. Georg Simon Ohm (1787-1854), a German physicist who worked extensively with electrical resistance.
- onanism 1. Manual stimulation of the genitals. 2. Coitus interruptus. Onan, the son of Judah, as explained in Genesis 38:9.
- orrery A mechanical model of the solar system. After Charles Boyle, Fourth Earl of Orrery (1676-1731), for whom one of the first was made.
- Oscar The annual award for best performances by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This name originated in an off-hand remark by the secretary at AMPAS: "He reminds me of my Uncle Oscar," that is, Oscar Pierce, US wheat farmer and fruit grower.
- ottoman A soft upholstered footstool. Italian ottomano "Ottoman", the Turkish royal family established by Osman I (1259-1326), sultan of Turkey (1281-1326).
- paean A song or hymn of praise; an encomium. Greek Paean (also Paeon) "healer" and "song" (probably because incantation was a part of healing at the time), an alternative name for Apollo, the physician of the Greek gods and god of healing.
- peony A domestic tuber with large flowers thick with petals. Possibly from Greek Paeon {also Paean) "healer" and "song" (probably because incantation was a part of healing at the time), alternative name for Apollo, the physician of the Greek gods and himself the god of healing.
- paisley A material of brightly colored abstract design featuring teardrop-shaped swirls. A town that was a 19th-century textile center in southern Scotland.
- palladium 1. A protector or safeguard. 2. A sacred object believed to protect an administrative region (city, state, country, etc.) After the protector of Troy, the Greek goddess Pallas Athena.
- pander To give in to the wishes of someone from whom you hope to gain something in return. Pandarus, an obsequious character in the poem Filostrato by Giovanni Boccaccio.
- panic To lose control of yourself in a state of nervous anxiety. Pan, the Greek god of the forests, shepherds and flocks, represented as a human torso with a goat's legs, horns, and ears.
- pants Clothing worn from the waist down have a separate sleeve for each leg. A clipping of pantaloon from Italian Pantalone, a silly old buffoon in the Italian Comedia dell'Arte, who wore spectacles, baggy breeches and stockings. He was named for the patron saint of Venice, San Panteleone, 4th century Venetian physician, executed for his belief in Christ. Pantaloons originally referred to bloomers, baggy underwear worn by women. Later it came to refer to pants tied below the knees and worn by men. From there it went on to be shortened to simply pants and refer to any sort of trousers.
- pascal A unit of pressure equal to one newton per square meter. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French mathematician and philosopher who invented the adding machine and contributed to the theory of probability.
- pasteurize
- pasteurise To destroy bacteria by heating. Louise Pasteur (1822-95), the French chemist and bacteriologist who discovered that bacteria are the cause of certain diseases.
- pavlova A dessert consisting of a meringue shell filled with fruit and topped with whipped cream. Anna Pavlova (1885-1931), a famous Russian ballerina.
- Pavlovian Automatic, unthinking, as a direct result of a stimulus. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936), Russian physiologist who discovered that the repetition of a stimulus conditions a predictable response pattern.
- Peach Melba Ice cream with peaches topped with raspberry liqueur. Helen Porter Mitchell (1861-1931), a famous opera singer of the late 19th and early 20th century, whose stage name was Dame Nellie Melba (taken from the name of her native city of Melbourne), honored by having many trifles named for her (see also Melba toast).
- peavy A lumberman's pike with a spike and pivoting hooked arm at the end. Joseph Peavey, an American blacksmith who died in 1873.
- pecksniff
- pecksniffian An unctuous hypocrite who meddles in the affairs of others. Seth Pecksniff, a character in the novel The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844) by Charles Dickens.
- Pennsylvania US state between New Jersey and Ohio with its capital in Harrisburg. Sir William Penn (1621-1670), British admiral and Quaker pacifist, who urged a union of all the English colonies long before the United States came into being.
- petersham 1. A rough, knotted woolen cloth. 2. A style of men's overcoat with a short cape attached. 3. A reinforced corded tape used in dress-making to stiffen areas. Charles Stanhope, Viscount Petersham, 4th Earl of Harrington (1780-1851) and British army officer who set the trend of wearing the coat.
- petri
- dish A shallow, circular, flat-bottomed glass or plastic dish with vertical sides and a cover of the same shape used to hold laboratory cultures or samples. Julius Petri (1852-1921), the German bacteriologist who first developed the dish and proposed its uses.
- pinchbeck An alloy of copper and zinc used in making cheap jewelry that resembles gold. Christopher Pinchbeck (circa 1670-1732), the London watchmaker, who developed the alloy.
- platonic Purely spiritual, ideal, not physical. Plato (Platon in Greek; circa 427-347 BCE), one of the three great Greek philosophers along with Socrates and Aristotle, who laid the foundation of Western culture.
- plimsoll 1. The line on the hull of a ship that indicates the legal limit to which it may be loaded. 2. A sneaker (British). Samuel Plimsoll (1824-1898), British merchant who played a crucial role in the reform of shipping rules.
- poinsettia A tropical American plant that is very popular at Christmas which has red or white upper leaves that appear to be petals around a small group of actual flowers that are yellow in its center. Noel Roberts Poinsett (1779-1851), U.S. ambassador to Mexico, thought to have brought the plant to the attention of botanists.
- poise A unit of dynamic viscosity equal to one dyne-second per square centimeter. J. L. M. Poiseuille (1799-1869), a French physician and physiologist.
- pompadour A hair style in which the front of the hair is swept up and back in a large roll. Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1721-1764), an influential French noblewoman and lover of Louis XV.
- poncelet An obsolete French unit of power equal to one hundred kilogram-meters of energy per second, now replaced by horsepower. Jean Victor Pocelet (1788-1867), French mathematician and engineer.
- praline Candy made of pecans in syrup boiled until solid. César de Choiseul, Count Plessis-Praslin (1598-1675), a nutty French field marshal.
- procrustean Ruthlessly forcing conformity. Procrustes, a mythical Greek giant who ruthlessly stretched or shortened captives to make them fit his beds.
- Promethean Boldly, defiantly creative, breaking the mold. Prometheus, a demigod in Greek mythology who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to humans and was punished by Zeus who chained him to a rock and sent an eagle to eat his liver, which grew back daily.
- protean Polymorphic, having many different shapes or forms. Proteus, sea god in Greek mythology who could change his appearance at will.
- pyrrhic Victorious at a great cost, with enormous losses, as a pyrrhic victory. Pyrrhus (319-272 BCE), king of Epirus, who defeated the Romans at Heraclea (280) and Asculum (279) despite staggering losses.
- python A large constrictor reptile that grows up to 20 feet (6 meters) long. A serpent that guarded the oracular cult until killed by Apollo according to Greek mythology.
- quassia A South American tree with bright scarlet flowers that yields the bitter tonic quassia, popular in the 19th century, from its wood and bark. A Surinamese slave, Graman Quassi, who discovered its medicinal properties.
- quisling Traitor, collaborator. Vidkun Abraham Quisling (1887-1945), a Norwegian collaborator with the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II.
- Quixotic Foolishly idealistic. Don Quixote, the hero of novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616).
- Rabelaisian Characterized by coarse, ribald humor. François Rabelais (1483-1553), French author of satirical attacks on medieval scholasticism and superstition, especially in his novels Pantagruel (1532) and Gargantua (1534).
- rachmanism Unscrupulous mistreatment of tenants. Peter Rachman (1920-1962), notoriously unscrupulous Polish-born landlord in London, England, in the 1950s.
- rafflesia A stemless, leafless parasitic plant with a large brown foul-smelling flower that can reach 1 meter in diameter. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826), British colonial administrator and a key nineteenth century imperial expansionist who founded the rather smelly London Zoo.
- raglan A sleeve that extends all the way to the neck with a slanted seam from the armpit to the neck or an article of clothing with such sleeves. Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788-1855), born in Badminton, aide-de-camp of Wellington and later commander of Lord Cardigan who led the famous Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War. Raglan lost his arm in battle and the raglan sleeve was probably named after him for an adaptation of his coat to accommodate his missing arm.
- rambo A violent, vengeful, and agressive person. John Rambo, the hero of David Morrell's violence-ridden novel First Blood (1972) and a series of movies starring Sylvester Stallone.
- Rastafarian A Christian who regards Ethiopia as the Promised Land and Haile Selassie as a messiah. The title assumed by Haile Selassie (1892-1975), Emperor of Ethiopia 1930; from Amharic ras "chief, prince" and täfäri "to be feared".
- rayl
- rayleigh Unit of acoustic impedance such that 1 rayl = 1 kg × m-2 × sec-1. John William Strutt, 3rd Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919), British physicist who won a 1904 Nobel Prize for investigating the density of gases and for discovering argon.
- rehoboam A wine bottle six times larger than a normal one. Rehoboam, the Old Testament son of Solomon, king of Israel & Judah around the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
- reyn A unit of dynamic viscosity. Osborne Reynolds (1842-1912), an Irish-born British fluid dynamics physicist who studied turbulence in fluid flow.
- rickettsia A bacteria carried by parasites that cause typhus and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Howard T. Ricketts (1871-1910), the American pathologist (Northwestern University and University of Chicago) who isolated the bacterium.
- ritzy Posh, swanky, luxurious. After the Ritz hotels, established by César Ritz (1850-1918), Swiss hotelier.
- rodomontade Outlandish bragging, boasting. Rodomonte, the arrogant Saracen king of Algiers in Ariosto's Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso whose name is based on Italian rodomontada "boasting".
- roentgen A unit of radiation exposure equal to the amount of ionizing radiation that creates one electrostatic unit of electricity in one cubic centimeter of dry air. Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen (1845-1923), the German physicist who discovered x-rays.
- roorback A political dirty trick, a slanderous lie against a political adversary. After a letter published in an Ithaca, New York newspaper during the 1844 presidential campaign between James K. Polk and Henry Clay. The letter claimed that a Baron von Roorback came across 43 slaves owned by Polk and branded with his initials while traveling through Tennessee. The baron did not exist.
- rutherford A unit of radioactive strength equal to one million disintegrations per second. Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford (1871-1937), New Zealand physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize for his research in radioactivity at Cambridge and McGill University.
- sabin A unit of acoustic absorption equivalent to the absorption of all sound by one square foot of a surface. Wallace Clement Sabine (1868-1919), American physicist who was the founder of the modern study of acoustics.
- sadism The enjoyment of inflicting pain on others. Count Donatien Alphonse François de Sade (1740-1814), French soldier who wrote novels about his adventures in mistreating young girls in his village.
- sad sack An awkward, dull, and foolish person. A cartoon character created in 1942 by George Baker (1915–1975).
- Saint Bernard A large, shaggy dog breed. Saint Bernard of Menthon (923-1008), an Italian clergyman who established a hospice on an Alpine pass connecting France and Germany with Rome from which, with the assistance of his dogs, he helped pilgrims trapped in the enormous snow drifts of that pass.
- salmonella A pathogenic bacteria causing food poisoning, typhoid, and other infectious diseases in humans and domestic animals. Daniel Elmer Salmon (1850-1914), an American veterinary surgeon who took credit for the discovery of salmonella, which was actually discovered by his colleague Theobald Smith.
- samarskite A black mineral occurring in pegmatites. Vasilii Yefrafovich Samarski-Bykhovets (1803-1870), Chief of staff of the Russian Corps of Mining Engineers.
- sandwich Food on a slice of bread or between two slices, eaten with the hands. John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792), an English aristocrat after whom Captain James Cook also named the Sandwich Islands.
- sanforize
- sanforise To preshrink clothes so that they will not shrink further after purchase. Sandford Lockwood Cluett (1840-1968), the American inventor of the process.
- sanforize
- sapphism Lesbianism, female homosexuality. Greek woman poet of the island of Lesbos, presumed to be homosexual.
- Saturday The seventh day of the week, after Friday. Saturn, Roman god of agriculture.
- saturnine Gloomy, sullen Presumed result of being born under the influence of the planet Saturn.
- savarin A sponge cake baked in a ring mold. Antheline Brillat-Savarin (died 1826), a French politician and gourmet cook, author of Physiologie du Gout (The Physiology of Taste).
- savart A unit of measure in music equal to the ratio in frequency between notes. The French physicist, Félix Savart (1791-1841), best known for his work in electromagnetism, though he also did pioneering research in the physics of sound.
- Savoyard A devotee of Gilbert & Sullivan operas or a performer in them. After the Savoy Theatre in London, known for its performances of Gilbert & Sullivan.
- saxophone A brass reed musical instrument shaped like an S. Adolphe Sax (1814-1894), a Belgian musician and musical-instrument maker.
- scrooge A mean-spirited skinflint, a nasty, ill-tempered, stingy person. After Ebenezer Scrooge, the miserly old-man in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
- sequoia The giant redwood tree. Sequoya (1770-1843), 19th-century Cherokee scholar who developed a writing system for the Cherokee language.
- shrapnel 1. Metal fragments from a bomb or artillery shell. 2. A 19th-century hollow cannon ball filled with metal shot that exploded in the air. Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842) who, while a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, invented a "spherical case" ammunition, comprising a hollow cannon ball filled with metal balls which burst in mid-air.
- sideburns That part of the hair that grows in front of the ears. Ambrose Everett Burnside (1824-1881), American general known mostly for wearing sideburns.
- siemens A unit of electrical conductance equal to the reciprocal of an ohm (one ampere per volt). Ernst Werner von Siemens (1816-1892), German electrical engineer, inventor, and businessman.
- sievert The amount of ionizing radiation required to produce the biological effect as one rad of high-penetration x-rays. R. M. Sievert (1896-1966), a Swedish physicist.
- silhouette A flat shadow-like figure without features other than a solid outline against a white background. Étienne de Silhouette (1709-1767), French Controller-General of Finances under Louis XV, because the victims of his taxes were reduced to mere shadows of themselves.
- simony The ecclesiastical crime of paying for offices or positions in the hierarchy of a church. Simon Magus, 1st century astrologer from Samaria who, according to Acts 8:18-19, tried to buy the power of conferring the gift of the Holy Spirit to people from the Apostles.
- slave A person who legally belongs to another and has no rights within the law. Sclavus, Medieval Latin word for 'a Slav', a member of the Slavonic people of central Europe, including Poles, Czechs, Russian, and Ukrainians.
- slob A person with no sense of cleanliness or hygiene. Another racial slur for Slav, a member of the Slavonic people of central Europe, including Poles, Czechs, Russian, and Ukrainians.
- smithsonite Native zinc carbonate. James Smithson (original name James Lewes Macie; 1765-1829), the British chemist for whom the Smithsonian Institute was also named.
- Socratic
- method, irony Related to raising doubt with questions and following the implications of the questions in teaching. Socrates (circa 470-399 BCE), Greek philosopher who developed this method of teaching.
- soubise A sauce of butter, tarragon, chicken stock, Chablis and onions thickened with cream. Charles de Rohan, Prince de Soubise (1715-1787), French nobleman and epicure.
- sousaphone A bass brass instrument that wraps around the shoulder. The horn was developed in the 1890s by J. W. Pepper at the request of John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), American composer and bandleader, whose name Pepper adopted for his instrument.
- spartan Lean, spare, austere, lacking frills or accessories. The ancient Greek city of Sparta, the capital of Laconia, known for its strictness, frugality, and its laconic speech.
- spencer 1. A short double-breasted overcoat worn by men in the 19th century. 2. A close-fitting, waist-length jacket worn by women. George John Spencer, 2nd Earl of Spencer (1758-1834), English Whig politician known mostly for having things named after him.
- spoonerism A speech error in which the first letters of two adjacent or close words are switched, as 'I hissed your mystery class'. Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), Anglican clergyman and educator, dean (1876-89) and warden (1903-1924) of New College, Oxford.
- stentorian Loud, booming. Stentor, a herald of the Greek forces during the Trojan War whose voice, according to Homer, was as powerful as fifty voices of other men.
- stetson A tall, large-brimmed hat favored in Texas and western US states. John Bauerson Stetson (1830-1906), an obscure American hat-maker.
- stoic Brave, unresponsive, unemotional. The Stoics, a Greek school of philosophy founded by Zeno about 308 BCE that believed God determined everything by diviine will, so anything that comes to pass should be calmly accepted as for the best.
- stroganoff Stewed in a sour cream, onion, and mushroom sauce: beef stroganoff, liver stroganoff, etc. Named for the prominent St. Petersburg family, Stroganoff, one of whose chefs apparently invented it.
- Svengali A mysterious man who can hypnotize people and trick them into doing his bidding. Svengali, a character in Trilby, novel by English artist and writer George du Maurier (1834-1896).
- syphilis A social venereal disease. Syphilis, a character in the poem Syphilis seve Morbus Gallicus by Girolamo Fracastro (1483-1553), a physician, astronomer, and poet of Verona. Syphilis was the name of the shepherd in the center of the poem and the disease he suffered from.
- Sisyphean Endlessly laborious and futile. Sisyphus, a Corinthian king who offended Zeus and was punished by having to push a stone to the top of a hill in Hades. However, as the stone approaced the top, it rolled back down and Sisyphus had to start all over again.
- talbot
- talbotype The process of photographing on sensitized paper. Named for the owner of the patent, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), British scientist, registered in 1841.
- tam-o'-shanter A soft woollen bonnet with flat circular crown about twice the diameter of the head, originally worn by Scottish ploughmen but by the end of the 19th century, by young ladies, as well. The hero of the poem Tam o' Shanter (1791), by the Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796).
- tantalize
- tantalise To allure with something that is withdrawn at the last moment, to torment in this way. Tantalus, mythical king of Phrygia who revealed secrets of the gods and was condemned to stand up to his chin in water, which dropped when he stooped to drink, with fruit hanging above him that rose when he reached to pick it.
- tarmac A heavy-duty asphalt used for airport runways. Short for tar+macadam, the name of John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836), the Scottish engineer who first proposed paving roads with crushed stone.
- tartuffe A hypocrite who feigns religious piety. Tartuffe, the protagonist in a play of the same name by Moliére.
- Tasmania An island off the southeastern coast of Australia, famous for its aboriginal Tasmania devil. Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603-59), Dutch navigator, who first explored the island, naming it Van Dieman's Land in 1642; it was remaned in his honor in 1853.
- tattersall A pattern popular in men's shirts made up of squares usually on a yellowish background. Richard Tattersall (1724-95), English horse auctioneer who founded the first bloodstock equine auction house in the world.
- tawdry Gaudy, tasteless. From tawdry lace, a corruption of Saint Audrey's lace which could only be purchased as Saint Audrey's Fair, in Ely, England. The fair was named after Saint Audrey (Saint Etheldreda), queen of Northumbria, who died in 679.
- teddy Short for teddy bear, a soft, stuffed toy in the shape of a bear. Named for Teddy, the nickname of President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), once depicted in a famous cartoon sparing the life of a bear cub.
- tesla A measure of a unit of magnetic flux density equal to one weber per square meter. Nikola Tesla (1857-1943), Croatian-born electrical inventor responsible for developing AC (alternating current) used in homes and buildings throughout the world today.
- tetrazzini Made with noodles in a cream sauce of mushrooms, almonds, and cheese. Luisa Tetrazzini (1874-1940), Italian opera singer who loved the stuff.
- theremin An electronic musical instrument played by moving the hands about its two antennas. Lev Teremin (1896-1993), the Russian engineer who invented it.
- thespian Related to actors or acting. Thespis, 6th century Greek poet credited as the originator of Greek tragedy.
- Thursday The fifth day of the week, between Wednesday and Friday. Thor, Norse god of thunder.
- timothy A European perennial grain (Phleum pratense) widely grown for hay in the United States. Possibly named for Timothy Hanson, the American farmer who brought the grain from Europe and introduced it in the US.
- titan A person outstanding in his or her field of endeavor. The Titans, 12 primeval gigantic gods and goddesses in Greek mythology.
- titanic Huge, gigantic. The Titans, 12 primeval gigantic gods and goddesses in Greek mythology.
- titchy (UK children's slang) Tiny, teeny, wee. Harry Relph (1867-1928), a small British actor whose stage name was "Little Titch".
- titian Brownish orange. Titian (circa 1487-1576), an Italian painter known for his use of this color in his paintings.
- tommy gun An .45 calibre submachine gun. A corruption of the Thompson submachine gun, named after John Taliaferro Thompson (1860-1940), the chief engineer of the Remington Arms Company who invented the weapon.
- tontine A retirement annuity in which the payout to individual members increases with the death of each member, the last member receiving the remaining principal. Lorenzo Tonti (1620-95), the Neopolitan banker who developed the idea.
- Tony An award given to members of the US theater. A shortening of "The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre", named for the American actress Antoinette Perry (1888-1946) by the American Theatre Wing, an organization promoting theater.
- torr A unit of pressure equal to 133.3 pascals. Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647), Italian physicist and mathematician.
- trilby A felt hat with two creases in the front of the crown. Trilby, novel by the British writer George du Maurier (1834-96) because the character wore such a hat in the London production based on the novel.
- trojan Short for Trojan horse A computer virus hidden in an otherwise useful application. The city of Troy, according to Homer's Odyssy and in Virgils' Aeneid, was defeated when its attackers gave the city a large wooden horse as an ostensible peace offering. At night, though, Greek warriors hidden in the horse came out and opened the gates of the city.
- troland A unit of visual stimulation to the retina. Leonard T. Troland (1889-1932), American, a Harvard biochemist who put forward one of the earliest theories describing a chemical origin for life on Earth and who had two retinas himself.
- trudgen Now called the front crawl: A swimming stroke with a double overarm movement and a scissors kick. John Arthur Trudgen (1860-1940), the British swimmer who copied it from South American Indians.
- tsar The former king of Russia. An Old Slavic variation of Caesar. (See also czar and kaiser.)
- Tuesday The third day of the week, between Monday and Wednesday. Tyr, the Anglo-Saxon god of war and the sky.
- typhon A steam-operated horn. Typhon, a monster with 100 heads and one of the whirlwinds in Greek mythology.
- uzi A compact Israeli 9mm submachine gun, the weapon of choice of drug smugglers. After Uziel "Uzi" Gal, born Gotthard Glass (1923-2003) in Germany, an Israeli army officer and weapons designer.
- valentine A card send to a loved one on St. Valentine's Day. Saint Valentine, 3rd century Christian martyred during the persecution of Christians by Claudius II.
- vandal Someone who intentionally defaces or destroys the propery of others. The Vandals, a Germanic people who overran Gaul, Spain, North Africa and Rome in the 5th century.
- venereal Sexually transmitted. Venus, the Roman goddess of love.
- vernier An auxiliary scale or measuring device for fine adjustments attached to a larger scale or device for making gross adjustments. Pierre Vernier (1580-1637), a French mathematician.
- vesta
- vestal Pure, chaste. Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth.
- Victorian 1. A style of furniture and decorating characteristic of the era of English Queen Victoria. 2. Overly proper, prudish. Queen Victoria of England (1819-1901), known for her austere life style and strict morality.
- volcano An opening in the earth through which molten lava issues or a mountain build up of lava. Vulcan (Latin Volcanus), the Roman god of fire and metalworking.
- volt A unit of measurement of electrical current. Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827), the Italian physicist who developed the first electric battery in 1800.
- vulcanize
- vulcanise To strengthen rubber by applying heat and pressure. Vulcan (Latin Volcanus), the Roman god of fire and metalworking.
- watt A unit of power equal to 1 joule per second. James Watt (1736-1819), Scottish engineer and inventor who made critical improvements to the steam engine.
- weber A unit of magnetic flux equal to 100,000,000 maxwells. Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804-1891), German physicist known for his research into magnetism and electricity.
- Wedgwood A British pottery design. Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795), the British potter who originated the design.
- Wednesday The fourth day of the week, between Tuesday and Thursday. Woden, god of wisdom, culture and, of course, war.
- wellington A rubber boot. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), British soldier and statesman.
- wisteria A decorative vine with hanging grape-like clusters of lavender flowers. The botanist Thomas Nuttall named the genus Wisteria in honour Caspar Wistar (1761-1818), a Philadelphia physician and teacher who introduced many innovations into the teaching of medicine.
- yarborough A bridge or whist hand containing no face cards in the trump suit. Charles Anderson Worsley, Second Earl of Yarborough (1809-1897), who supposedly laid odds at one time of 1,000 to 1 that such a hand would not be dealt.
- zany Outrageously funny, ridiculous. Zanni, a traditional clown who wears a mask with a long, downward curving beak in the Italian Commedia dell'arte.
- Zeppelin A dirigible balloon. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917), German general and aeronautical pioneer who developed the first balloon with propellers that was dirigible (directable).
- zinnia A cultivated flower with a showy, rayed, variously colored flowers. Johann Gottfried Zinn (1727-1759), German anatomist and director of the Botanic garden of the University of Göttingen, where he described various species of orchids.
- ...
Erstellt: 2010-02
B
Baumes rush, Baumes Law (W3)
(E4)(L1) http://www.miskatonic.org/slang.html
Senator "Caleb H. Baumes" sponsored a New York law (the "Baumes Law") which called for automatic life imprisonment of any criminal convicted more than three times. Some criminals would move to a state that didn't have this law in order to avoid its penalty should they be caught again, and this was known as a "Baumes rush," because of the similarity to "bum's rush."
Bobby (W3)
British: A policeman. - After Sir Robert ("Bob") Peel, who was Great Britain's Home Secretary when the 1828 Metropolitan Police Act was passed.
(E?)(L1) http://jeff560.tripod.com/words16.html
(E1)(L1) http://www.word-detective.com/
(E1)(L1) http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
(E1)(L1) http://www.worldwidewords.org/
Boolesche Algebra (W3)
(E?)(L?) http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?George+Boole
(E6)(L1) http://computer.howstuffworks.com/boolean.htm
auch "symbolische Logik" ist benannt nach dem britischen Mathematiker George Boole (1815 - 1864)
Eine praktische Anwendung ist z.B. die Eingabe "xyz AND/OR/NOT abc" in eine Suchmaschine. Dabei sind "AND", "OR" und "NOT" sogenannte "Boolesche Operatoren".
C
cat's pyjamas (W2)
(E?)(L?) http://www.owad.de/
Seltsamerweise trifft die deutsche Übersetzung "Katzen-Pyjama" in diesem Fall eher zu. Dieser "grossartige", "tolle" Schlafanzug steht für "something which is really great". Er geht zurück auf "E.B. Katz", einem englischen Schneider, der um 1800 feine Seiden-Schlafanzüge für die adlige - ja königliche - Kundschaft herstellte. Das "Nickerchen" im Schlafanzug von Katz wurde zum Verkaufsschlager: "Nothing like a cat nap in Kat'z pyjamas".
Climbing Lady Hillingdon - Rose
Die Rose "Lady Hillingdon" wurde von den Züchtern "Lowe & Shawyer" im Jahr 1910 im Städchen Uxbridge in der Nähe von London vorgestellt. Die Elternrosen waren "Gontier" und "Madame Hoste". Die edle Rose erinnerte die Züchter an "Alice Mariam Harbord" einer Dame in ihrer Nachbarschaft. Sie heiratete im Jahr 1886 den Bankier und Parlamentsabgeordneten "Charles William Mills Baron Hillingdon". Und damit wurde "Alice Mariam Harbord" zu "Lady Hillingdon".
Durch eine spontane Veränderung im Erbgut entstand der Sport "Lady Hillingdon Climbing", "Climbing Lady Hillingdon", also eine Kletterrose, die der Züchter "Elisha J. Hicks" im Jahr 1917 entdeckte.
Der Ortsname "Hillingdon" (1080) soll auf "Hilda's hill" zurück gehen.
(E?)(L?) http://www.frost-burgwedel.de/index.php?seite=rosenkatalog_2&id=157
(E?)(L?) http://www.krysstal.com/londname.html
(E?)(L1) http://www.rogersroses.com/gallery/chooserResult.asp
(E?)(L?) http://www.rogersroses.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~719~gid~~source~gallerychooserresult.asp
Lady Hillingdon Climbing
Erstellt: 2010-03
Cook, James (W3)
James Cook (1728-1779) ist in zweifacher Hinsicht Namensgeber vieler geografischer Orte der Erde. Zum einen benannte der Seefahrer und Entdecker viele Orte der von ihm entdeckten Welt und zum anderen wurden viele Orte nach James Cook benannt.
(E?)(L?) http://www.captaincooksociety.com/
(E?)(L?) http://wissen.dradio.de/index.37.de.html?dram:article_id=153
James Cook entdeckt Hawaii
Was den großen Entdecker auf das offene Meer trieb.
Am 18. Januar 1778 entdeckt James Cook Hawaii - und nannte die Inselgruppe "Sandwich".
...
(E?)(L?) http://www.kah-bonn.de/index.htm?ausstellungen/jamescook/index.htm
James Cook und die Entdeckung der Südsee
28. August 2009 bis 28. Februar 2010
Der britische Seefahrer und Entdecker James Cook (1728–1779) wurde durch drei Expeditionsreisen (1768–1779/80) in die damals noch unbekannten Weiten des Pazifischen Ozeans berühmt. Ihm gelang es erstmalig, Neuseeland, Australien und die Inselwelt der Südsee zu kartographieren. Damit vervollständigte er unser neuzeitliches Bild von der Erde und widerlegte die Vorstellung von einem mythischen Südkontinent.
...
(E?)(L?) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook
James Cook (* 27. Oktober 1728 in Marton bei Middlesbrough; † 14. Februar 1779 in der Bucht von Kealakekua auf Hawaii) war ein britischer Seefahrer und Entdecker. Berühmt wurde er durch drei Fahrten in den Pazifischen Ozean, auf denen er zahlreiche Inseln entdeckte sowie weitere Inseln vermaß und kartografierte.
...
crimezzz
Serial Killer Crime Index
Serienkiller-Enzyklopädie
(E?)(L1) http://www.crimezzz.net/
crimeZZZ.net IS A PRIVATE PROJECT of eliZZZa who is in fact not half as bloodthirsty as this site may let you fear. Actually I am a rather peaceful person, teaching screen design, web production and everything PC and Internet while privately growing orchids and living with my cat "Stiefel" ("boots") in the middle of Vienna.
The impetus to collecting serial killers struck me when I researched for a job on that topic, which left me quite frustrated facing so much humiliation, perversion, contempt for humanity and neglection of victims, that I immediately started building a site with a different approach - I always re-invent Internet, whenever I am not content with what I find out there. But that´s a different story >;o))
Nichts für schwache Nerven...
Streifzug durch die Geschichte der Serienmörder. Neben einer Enzyklopädie der Serienkiller von A-Z und der Darstellung spektakulärer Mordfälle finden Sie hier Querverbindungen zu den berühmtesten Verfilmungen und zu den legendärsten Hollywood Kriminalfällen.
Cummerbund (W3)
(E?)(L?) http://www.yourdictionary.com/cgi-bin/wotd.cgi?word=cummerbund
Der engl. "cummerbund" = "A broad sash or waistband, pleated lengthwise, and usually worn in place of a vest with a tuxedo or dinner jacket". hat eine etwas andere Herkunft.
Etymology: From the Hindi kamarband from Persian kamar "waist" + band "band". Does it surprise you that Persian and English have the same word for band? That is why we think they were all one language, PIE, at one time. The word comes into Old Iranian (Persian) "banda-". The PIE root was apparently "*bhendh-" "to bind". It also gave us "bandana" from Sanskrit "bandhati" "he ties", "bundle", and "ribbon", a corruption of "riband".
D
E
eponym (W3)
(E1)(L1) http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/eponym
F
Faraday - Faraday'scher Käfig
(E?)(L1) http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/f/faraday.asp
(E?)(L?) http://members.vol.at/roemer/1997/roe_9751.htm
Weihnachtvorlesung
Der Name des englischen Physikers "Michael Faraday" (1791-1867) ist heute noch im "Faraday'schen Käfig" festgehalten.
Daneben findet man ihn auch
- in der Einheit Farad (F) zur Angabe der elektrischen Kapazität
- im Faraday-Äquivalentgesetz
- im Faraday-Dunkelraum
- im Faraday-Effekt
- in den Faraday-Gesetzen
- im Faraday-Induktionsgesetz
- in der Faraday-Konstante
- im Faraday-Verschluss
- und in der Faradisation, der elektrischen Reizung von Nerven
Auf Faraday geht auch die "Weihnachtvorlesung für Kinder" zurück, die immer noch statt findet.
G
Grog, Old Grog, groggy, grogram (W1)
(E1)(L1) http://www.contemplator.com/sea/
(E1)(L1) http://www.contemplator.com/history/grog.html
(E1)(L1) http://www.etymonline.com/g5etym.htm
(E?)(L1) http://jeff560.tripod.com/words16.html
(E1)(L1) http://www.w-akten.de/lebensmittel.phtml
(E1)(L1) http://www.westegg.com/etymology/
(E1)(L1) http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/archives/1296
(E1)(L1) http://www.yourdictionary.com/cgi-bin/wotd.cgi?word=groggy
Auch im Deutschen kennt man den Bgriff "groggy" um einen geschwächten Zustand zu umschreiben; "ich bin groggy" heisst "ich bin kaputt".
Da gibt es zunächst einmal die beiden lat. Wörter "grossus" = "dick, grob" und "granum" = "Korn, Kern". Darauf geht das frz. "gros grain" zurück, das einen "starken Seidenstoff" bezeichnet (eigentlich "grobes Korn"). Daraus wurde engl. "grogram coat" von "grogram" = "grober Stoff, Mischgewebe aus Seide und Wolle".
Nun tritt zunächst der Vize-Admiral William Penn, der Vater des Gründers des US-Staates Pennsylvania auf den Plan. Der führte 1655 bei einem Aufenthalt auf Jamaica, mangels Bier oder Wein, den Rum als Schiffsration (ein Pint pro Tag) ein.
1740 kommt dann ein weiterer englischer Vize-Admiral, Edward Vernon, ins Spiel. Dieser liess seine Matrosen, die ihnen zustehende Rum-Ration nur verdünnt mit Wasser trinken (sei es um die Alkoholisierung zu senken, sei es um die Vorräte an Rum zu strecken?). Jedenfalls trug dieser Vernon am liebsten einen warmen (Admirals-)Rock aus grobem Kamelhaar ("Grogham") und hatte deshalb bald den Spitznamen "Old Grogham" bzw. "Old Grog". Ja und dieser Name wurde auch auf das an Bord vorgeschriebene Getränk übertragen.
Dieser verdünnte Rum schmeckte auch den Lords, die allerdings je nach Geschmack etwas Zucker oder Gewürze dazu gaben und im Winter wärmten sie den verdünnten und gewürzten Rum an und nannten es nach dem Spitznamen seines "Erfinders" "Grogham's Rum" woraus später einfach "Grog" wurde. Etwas kultiviert ist ein "Grog" also ein heisses Rumgetränk mit Wasser und Zucker.
Aber auch wenn der Rum verdünnt war, konnte man dennoch bei genügender Menge davon "groggy" = "betrunken, erschöpft" werden. Und so kam es dann seit Beginn des 19.Jh. langsam nach Deutschland. Um 1920 bürgerte es sich vor allem im Boxsport ein, wo es für "hart angeschlagen, halb betäubt" benutzt wurde.
Und heute kann man aus den unterschiedlichsten Gründen "groggy" sein. Dazu muss man weder grobe Baumwollhosen tragen noch übermässig Alkohol getrunken haben oder an einem Boxkampf teilgenommen haben. Es genügt schon, an einer Mammuthsitzung teilgenommen zu haben.
H
Henry'sches Gesetz (W3)
Das Gesetz, das nach seinem Entdecker, dem englischen Physiker und Chemiker William Henry benannt wurde, besagt, dass die Menge der in einer Flüssigkeit gelösten Gases proportional zum Druck des darüber befindlichen Gases ist. (Also: Je grösser der Gasdruck in einer Mineralwasserflasche ist um so mehr Kohlendioxid ist im 'Sprudel' gelöst. Beim Öffnen der Flasche wird der Druck geringer, so dass auch ein Teil des im Wasser gelösten Gases entweicht.)
Hitchcock (W3)
(E?)(L?) http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/h/hitchcoca1.asp
Der Name des Regiseurs und Autors Sir Alfred Hitchcock wurde zum Inbegriff eines Genres, des psychologisch motivierten Kriminalfilms.
Hobson's choice (W3)
(E1)(L1) http://www.etymonline.com/
(E?)(L?) http://www.geocities.com/athens/delphi/1979/trivia.html
(E?)(L?) http://www.geocities.com/athens/delphi/1979/answers.html
(E?)(L1) http://jeff560.tripod.com/words16.html
(E?)(L?) http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-wood042103.asp
(E?)(L?) http://www.owad.de/
(E1)(L1) http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/
(E1)(L?) http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/
(E1)(L1) http://www.w-akten.de/redenglisch.phtml
(E?)(L?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobson
(E?)(L?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobson's_choice
(E?)(L?) http://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eponyms.htm
(E1)(L1) http://www.word-detective.com/backidx.html
(E1)(L1) http://www.wordorigins.org/
(E1)(L1) http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
Aug 03, Aug 99, Aug 01
Geht auf den im 17.Jh. in Cambrigde lebenden Geschäftsmann (stable manager) Thomas Hobson (1544-1630) zurück, der seinen Kunden lediglich die Möglichkeit bot, den nächststehenden Gaul zu mieten.
Das heisst also wer "Hobson's choice" wahrnimmt hat keine andere Wahl, "a choice without an alternative".
I
infopop
Eponyms-List
Wordcraft Eponyms
Namen die Begriffe wurden
(E?)(L?) http://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eponyms.htm
578 entries - We are now the net's biggest collection of general eponyms!
Am 23.08.2004 waren folgende Begriffe mit der Erklärung auf wessen Namen sie beruhen aufgeführt:
abigail | abishag | academy; academic | Adamite | adonis | alfonsin; alphonsin | algorism | algorithm | alice blue | Alice in Wonderland | Alphonse and Gaston | amazon | America | amethyst | ammonia | Amphitryon | Anacreontic | ananias | Annie Oakley | Antaean | aphrodisiac | Apician | apollonian | April | argus | argyle | aristarch | athenaeum | atlas | augean | August | aurora | axel | Babbitt | babbitt metal | Bacchanal | Baedeker | bakelite | balmy; barmy (crazy) | bant | Barmecide; Barmecide feast | barnumize | baroque | Bartlett pear | batty | beau brummell | béchamel sauce | begonia | belcher | Big Bertha | biro | bishop (verb) | black maria | bloomers | blucher | bluebeard | bluestocking | bobby | bob's your uncle | Bodoni | bogart | Bohr bug | bolivar | boniface | booze | Borachio | boreal | bork (verb) | bosie | Boswell | bougainvillea | bowdlerize | Bowie knife | bowler | boycott | braggadocio | braille | brodie | Bronx | Brother Jonathan | brougham | bruin | buckley's chance | bumbledom | Bunsen burner | burke | burnsides | busby | BVD | caesarean | calliope | calliopean | camellia | cappuccino | cardigan | Cassandra | catherine wheel | ceasar salad | celsius | cereal | chanticleer | chauvanism | chesterfield | chicken à la king | chicken tetrazini | chimerical | chinchona | churrigueresque | cicerone | Cimmerian | cinderella | Circean | clerihew | cliometrics | cobb salad | codswallop | Colonel Blimp | colt | comstockery | cook's tour | crapper | crisscross | croesus | curry favor | cynic | czar, tsar | Daedal | daguerreotype | dahlia | Dandie Dinmont | davenport (desk) | davenport (sofa) | Delphic | derby | derrick | derringer | diddle | diesel | dionysian | Dives | Doberman | doily | Don Juan | doozy | doubting Thomas | Dr. Fell | draconian | draisine | Drawcansir | dryasdust | dunce | dundrearies | Egeria | éminence grise | epicurian | eristic | erotic | euhemerism | euphuism | euterpean | Fabian | fagin | Fahrenheit | Fallopian tubes | Falstaffian | fanny adams | fata morgana | Faustian | favonian | fedora | ferris wheel | filberts | fletcherism | foley | frangipani | Freudian slip | frick and frack | Friday | frisbee | fuchsia | fudge | furphy | galvanize | gamp | gardenia | gargantuan | garibaldi | gatling gun | geiger counter | georgette | gerrymander | gibberish | gibson girl | gimlet | gladstone bag | goldilocks | Goliath | golliwog | goody two-shoes | goon | Gordian Knot | gorgon | gorilla | gradgrind | graham cracker | grand marnier | grangerize | granny smith apple | grimthorpe | grog (groggy) | grundyism; mrs. grundy | guillotine | guppy | guy | ham (a bad actor) | harlequin | harlot | havelock | hector | heisenbug | herculean | hermaphrodite | hermetic | Hobson's Choice | hooker | hooligan | Horatio Alger | hotspur | hoyle | huttoning | hyacinth | hypnosis | Icarian | ignoramus | jackanapes | Jacky Howe | jacuzi | January | jeep | jehu | jekell and hyde | jeremiad | jerry-built | jerry-can | jezebel | jim crow | jingoism | joe | John Bull | john dory | John Hancock | jonah | jorum | jovial | judas | July | jumbo | June | kaiser roll | kewpie doll | kir | klieg light | knickerbocker | knickers | labanotation | Lamarckism | leotard | lewisite | lobster newberg | loganberry | lothario | Lucy Stoner | Luddite | lush | lutz | lynch | macabre | macadam | macadamia nut | Mach number | machiavellian | mackintosh | Mae West | magdalen | malaprop | man Friday | mandelbug | marcel | March | Mardi gras | marigold | marmelade | marplot | martial | martinet | masochism | mason jar | maudlin | mausoleum | maverick | May | mazarine | McCarthyism | medusa | mercurial | mesmerize | Methuselah | Micawber | mickey finn | Mickey Mouse | Midas touch | milquetoast | mint (as coins) | mithriditism | Molotov cocktail | money | Montgolfier | morganite | morganize¹ | morganize² | morphine | munchkin | Murphy game | Murphy's Law | museum | myrmidon | namby-pamby | nemesis | nestor | nimrod | obsidian | ockham's razor | oedipal | onanism | orangeman | orrery | Orwellian | Oscar (the award) | ozymandian | Palladian¹ | Palladian² | pander; pandar | Panglossian | panic | panpipe | Pantagruelian | pants; pantaloons | pasquinade | pasteurize | pavlovian | pecksniffian | peeping Tom | peter pan | Peter Pan collar | philander | philippic | Philomel | Pickwickian | pinchbeck | platonic | plimsoll | poinsettia | Pollyanna | pompadour | Ponzi scheme | pooh-bah | pooter | praline | Procrustean | protean | psyche; psychology | pullman | Punch | Punchinello | puritanical | pyrrhic victory | pyrrhonism | python | quassia | quisling | Rabelaisian | rachmanism | raglan | real McCoy | ritzy | robot | rodomontade; rhodomontade | Romeo | roorback | roquelaure | roscian | rube goldberg | Rubenesque | sad sack | sadism | salisbury steak | Sally Lunn | salmonella | sandwich | sapphic | Sardanapalian | Saturday | saxophone | scaramouche | schroedinbug | Scylla | sequoia | Shirley Temple | shrapnel | shylock | shyster | sibyl | sideburns | Simon Legree | simony | siren | Sisyphean | smart aleck | Soapy Sam | solander | solomonic | solon | sousaphone | spencer | spinet | spoonerism | St. Elmo's fire | St. Martin's summer | St. Vitus dance | stentorian | Stetson | svengali | sword of Damocles | syphilis | syringe | tam-o'-shanter | tantalize | tartuffe | termagant | terpsichorean | thalian | therblig | thersitical | thespian | thrasonical | Thursday | titan | titch; tich; titchy | titian | Tom and Jerry | Tom Collins | tommy gun | tontine | Topsy ("growed like topsy") | trilby | trudgen | Tuesday | tupperware | Turveydrop | Tweedledum & Tweedledee | ucalegon | Uncle Sam | Uncle Tom | uranic | Uriah Heep | valentine | van dyck | van dyke | venereal | vernier | veronica | Victorian | volcano | volpone | vulcanization | welch | Wellerism | Wellington | Wheatstone bridge | wimpy | wisteria | Xanthippe | yapp (n. & v.) | yarborough | yegg | yellow journalism | Young Turk | zephyr | zeppelin | zinnia | zoilist
UNITS OF MEASURE:
ampere | angstrom | baud | Baumé scale | Beaufort scale | becquerel | bel | celsius | coulomb | curie | dalton | fahrenheit | farad | faraday | fermi | gilbert | gray | henry | hertz | joule | Kelvin | lambert | langley | Mach number | maxwell | mho | Mohs scale | newton | oersted | ohm | pascal | poise | Réaumur | Richter scale | rutherford | sabin | siemens | tesla | volt | watt | weber
J
K
Keynesianismus, keynesianische Dekade (W3)
(E?)(L?) http://www.hwwa.de/
nennt man die Ankurbelung der Wirtschaft eines Landes durch staatliche Konjunkturprogramme. Die theoretischen Grundlagen dazu legte der britische Ökonom John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946). Bis 1981 setzte die Bundesregierung 40 Mrd. DM in entsprechende Förderprogramme. Entsprechend wird von den 70ern auch als die keynesianische Dekade gesprochen.
Im "Hamburgischen Welt-Wirtschafts-Archiv" findet man weitere Informationen dazu.
Kummerbund
(E?)(L?) http://www.frackverleih.de/frackverleih-lexikon.htm#kummerbund
ist eine Verballhornung des Namens des Erfinders. Das war nämlich der Earl of 'Cumber'.
L
Lady Hillingdon - Rose
Die Rose "Lady Hillingdon" wurde von den Züchtern "Lowe & Shawyer" im Jahr 1910 im Städchen Uxbridge in der Nähe von London vorgestellt. Die Elternrosen waren "Gontier" und "Madame Hoste". Die edle Rose erinnerte die Züchter an "Alice Mariam Harbord" einer Dame in ihrer Nachbarschaft. Sie heiratete im Jahr 1886 den Bankier und Parlamentsabgeordneten "Charles William Mills Baron Hillingdon". Und damit wurde "Alice Mariam Harbord" zu "Lady Hillingdon".
Durch eine spontane Veränderung im Erbgut entstand der Sport "Lady Hillingdon Climbing", also eine Kletterrose, die der Züchter "Elisha J. Hicks" im Jahr 1917 entdeckte.
Der Ortsname "Hillingdon" (1080) soll auf "Hilda's hill" zurück gehen.
(E?)(L?) http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/rose-416.html
(E?)(L?) http://www.classicroses.co.uk/roses/l/lady_hillingdon.html
(E?)(L1) http://www.davidaustinroses.com/german/showrose.asp?showr=503
(E?)(L?) http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.3702
(E?)(L?) http://lantana.homestead.com/Roses2MorgensLHill98.html
(E?)(L1) http://www.justourpictures.com/roses/textindex.html
(E?)(L?) http://www.justourpictures.com/roses/ladyhillingdon.html
(E?)(L?) http://www.justourpictures.com/roses/ladyhillingdon2.html
(E?)(L?) http://www.krysstal.com/londname.html
(E1)(L1) http://www.namen-der-rosen.de/ladyhillingdon.html
(E?)(L?) http://www.paulzimmermanroses.com/libraryroseindividualpage.asp?LHIL
(E?)(L1) http://www.rdrop.com/~paul/teas/hillingdon.html
(E?)(L1) http://www.rogersroses.com/gallery/chooserResult.asp
(E?)(L?) http://www.rogersroses.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~719~gid~~source~gallerychooserresult.asp
Lady Hillingdon Climbing
(E?)(L?) http://www.rosarosam.com/roses_galleries/roses_alpha_index.htm
(E6)(L1) http://www.rosefile.com/Gallery/SmallPhoto/LadyHilling.html
(E?)(L1) http://www.rosegathering.com/hillingdon.html
Lady Hillingdon (Lowe and Shawyer, 1910)
(E6)(L?) http://www.rose-roses.com/rosepages/ogrs/LadyHillingdon.html
(E?)(L?) http://www.welt-der-rosen.de/duftrosen/l_duftrosen.htm#lady_hillington
Erstellt: 2010-03
Lady Hillingdon Climbing - Rose
Die Rose "Lady Hillingdon" wurde von den Züchtern "Lowe & Shawyer" im Jahr 1910 im Städchen Uxbridge in der Nähe von London vorgestellt. Die Elternrosen waren "Gontier" und "Madame Hoste". Die edle Rose erinnerte die Züchter an "Alice Mariam Harbord" einer Dame in ihrer Nachbarschaft. Sie heiratete im Jahr 1886 den Bankier und Parlamentsabgeordneten "Charles William Mills Baron Hillingdon". Und damit wurde "Alice Mariam Harbord" zu "Lady Hillingdon".
Durch eine spontane Veränderung im Erbgut entstand der Sport "Lady Hillingdon Climbing", also eine Kletterrose, die der Züchter "Elisha J. Hicks" im Jahr 1917 entdeckte.
Der Ortsname "Hillingdon" (1080) soll auf "Hilda's hill" zurück gehen.
(E?)(L?) http://www.classicroses.co.uk/roses/l/lady_hillingdon_climber.html
(E?)(L?) http://www.davidaustinroses.com/german/showrose.asp?showr=504
(E?)(L?) http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.3703
(E?)(L?) http://www.krysstal.com/londname.html
(E?)(L?) http://www.paulzimmermanroses.com/libraryroseindividualpage.asp?LHILCL
(E?)(L1) http://www.rogersroses.com/gallery/chooserResult.asp
(E?)(L?) http://www.rogersroses.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~719~gid~~source~gallerychooserresult.asp
(E?)(L1) http://www.rosegathering.com/alphroses.htm
Lady Hillingdon, Cl. (Climbing Tea, Hicks, 1917)
(E?)(L?) http://www.welt-der-rosen.de/duftrosen/l_duftrosen.htm#lady_hillington
Erstellt: 2010-03
Luddite, Luddism (W3)
(E?)(L?) http://owad.de/
(Aus dem Newsletter vom 23.07.2003)
= a person who opposes technical or technological change = 'der Maschinenstürmer'.
Ned Ludd, was an English laborer who was supposed to have destroyed weaving machinery around 1779.
Between 1811 and 1816 a group of British workers rioted and destroyed laborsaving textile machinery in the belief that such machinery would reduce employment.
You may occasionally hear the word 'Luddism' to describe the philosophy of this movement.
M
Mackay - The real Mackay (W3)
Die Glasgower Whisky-Produzenten "Mackay and Co." benutzten den Spruch "The real Mackay" als Werbe-Slogan. Von dort wurde er zum Amerikanismus, wahrscheinlich in Anlehnung an "a real NcCoy" (s. McCoy).
N
namby-pamby (W3)
(E?)(L?) http://www.owad.de/
(E?)(L?) http://www.karadar.com/Worterbuch/carey.html
(E?)(L?) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Carey
Das engl. "namby-pamby" = "weak", "lacking strength", "without courage" = dt. "unentschlossen", "verweichlicht", "rückgratlos", "feige", "seicht", "abgeschmackt", "sentimentales Zeug" geht auf einen Decknamen zurück.
Ambrose Philips, ein eher unbekannter Dichter des 18. Jh. wurde von seinen Zeitgenossen stark kritisiert. Der satirische Liederdichter Henry Carey nannte ihn in Bezug auf einige von Philips stammende Kinderverse "Namby Pamby". Mit "Namby" nahm Carey Bezug auf die Verniedlichungsform "Amby" von Careys Vornamen "Ambrose". "Pamby" setzt sich zusammen aus dem Initial des Nachnamens "Philips" und wiederholt den die Verniedlichungsform von "Ambrose".
Diese Namensgebung drehte die Runde und wurde zur Bezeichnung von faden, sentimentalen Menschen und Dingen.
Dem engl. "namby-pamby" entspricht etwa das dt. "Wischi-waschi".
Das engl. "namby-pamby" passt übrigens ins Umfeld der Ampelwörter; allerdings wird nicht deutlich, wem "amby" das "n" geklaut hat. Vermutlich entstammt es einfach der Phantasie des Kritikers Carey. Möglich wäre aber auch dass es von "an amby-pamby" zu "a namby-pamby" mutierte. Dann wäre es jedenfalls ein vollwertiges Ampelwort.
Newton (W3)
(E?)(L?) http://www.newtonproject.ic.ac.uk/
Isaac Newton
npg - National Portrait Gallery
(E?)(L?) http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/
of 10,000 portraits
is the most comprehensive of its kind in the world
shows the most influential characters in British history portrayed by the finest artists of their generation
runs to some 10,000 items in our Primary Collection, with a further 300,000 in the archive
includes works by Holbein, Van Dyck & Reynolds, through Gainsborough, Millais & Tissot, to Cecil Beaton, David Bailey & Patrick Heron
includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings and photographs
demonstrates the history of British portraiture from its beginning, through the contortions of caricature and the crisis caused by the advent of photography, to the edge of abstraction.
William Shakespeare ist z.B. unter "Sitter" mit 12 Portraits zu finden:
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Dramatist and poet. 12 portraits.
O
P
person (W3)
(E?)(L?) http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/person
Q
R
ritzy place, ritzy, Ritz (W2)
(E6)(L?) http://www.owad.de/check.php4?id=1428
Das engl. Bezeichnung für eine "stinkvornehme Umgebung" ("elegant", "nobel", "protzig") geht zunächst zurück auf die vornehmen "Ritz Hotels". Diese wurden von dem schweizer Hotelier "César Ritz" (1850-1918) gegründet. (Das erste "Ritz" baute er an der Place Vendôme in Paris. Mittlerweile gibt es die Ritz Hotels in vielen Ländern.) Somit geht das Adjektiv "ritzy" also auf den schweitzer Familiennamen "Ritz" zurück.
Wie es zur Bildung des Familiennamens "Ritz" kam, kann ich im Moment nur spekulieren. Jedenfalls geht der "Ritz" zurück auf "reissen", was eine grosse Palette an Deutungen zuläßt. Diese reicht vom Schriftgelehrten ("ritzen von Runenzeichen") bis zum Waldarbeiter ("Holz reissen").
royal
The British Monarchy
Die Britischen Royalties
(E?)(L?) http://www.royal.gov.uk/
- Her Majesty The Queen: Early life, Education, Marriage and family, Accession and Coronation, Public life...The Queen and the UK
- The Role of the Monarchy, Queen and Government, Queen and the Law, Queen and the Church, Queen and the Armed Forces ...
- The Queen and the Commonwealth: The role of the Monarchy in the Commonwealth, Commonwealth members, Queen and overseas territories, Queen and Australia, Queen and New Zealand...
- The current Royal Family: The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William, Prince Harry...
- The Royal Household: Royal Household departments, Working for the Royal Household, Royal finances, Transport, Official Royal posts...
- History of the Monarchy: English Monarchs (400 AD - 1603), Scottish Monarchs (400 AD - 1603), United Kingdom Monarchs (1603 - present), The House of Windsor from 1952, Archive footage video gallery...
- Charities and Patronages: Search Charities and Patronages, Royal involvement with charities, Suggesting a Patronage, Video gallery, Image gallery...
- The Royal Collection and other collections: The Royal Collection, The Crown Jewels, The Royal Philatelic Collection, The Royal Archives, Official gifts to The Queen...
- The Royal Residences: Overview, Buckingham Palace, The Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace...
- Images and Broadcasts: Sourcing photographs for official use, Galleries, The Royal Family and technology, Downloadable images, Historic speeches and broadcasts...
- Royal events and ceremonies: Ceremonies and events map, Accession, Audiences, Ceremonial bodies, Coronation...
- Latest News and Diary: Future events, Past events (Court Circular), Speeches and articles, Press releases, Fact files...
(E?)(L?) http://www.royal.gov.uk/AtoZ.aspx
- # | 21st birthday speech, 21 April 1947 | 2pg Summary 2005-06.pdf | 40 facts about Buckingham Palace | 50 facts about The Duke of Edinburgh | 50 facts about The Queen's Coronation | 50 facts about The Queen's Golden Jubilee | 50 facts about The Queen's reign | 50 Facts of The Queen's Golden Jubilee | 50 Facts on The Queen's Golden Jubilee year | 60 Diamond Wedding anniversary facts | 60 facts | 60th anniversary D-Day commemoration in Arromanches, 6 June 2004 | 80 facts about The Duke of Edinburgh | 80 facts about The Queen | 80th Birthday lunch at Mansion House, London, 15 June 2006 | 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, 9 April 2007
- A | A' Bhànrigh | A day in the life of | A day in the life of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent | A day in the life of Prince William | A day in the life of The Duchess of Cornwall | A day in the life of The Duke of York | A' Mhonarcachd ann an Alba | About the Commonwealth | About the Royal Archives | Access to the Royal Archives | Accession | Accession | Accession and Coronation | Accession Day Garden Parties | Activities | Activities and interests | Activities and interests | Activities and interests | Activities and interests | Activities and interests | Activities and interests | Activities and interests | Activities and interests | Activities as Queen | Adelaide Festival Hall, Australia, 27 February 2002 | Aed (r. 877-878) | Afternoon | Air Travel | Alexander I (r.1107-1124) | Alexander II (r.1214-1249) | Alexander III (r. 1249-1286) | Alfred 'The Great' (r. 871-899) | alfred.pdf | Anne (r.1702-1714) | Anne (r.1702-1714) | Annie Liebovitz photographic portraits of The Queen | Announcement of a new Governor General of New Zealand | Announcement of a special Garden Party for children | Announcement of events to celebrate The Queen's 80th birthday in 2006 | Announcement of the christening of Lady Louise Windsor | Announcement of the engagement of Lord Nicholas Windsor | Announcement of the engagement of Mr Peter Phillips | Announcement of the pregnancy of The Countess of Wessex | Announcement of the pregnancy of The Countess of Wessex | Announcement of The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2003 | Annual summary 2004-05.pdf | Annual summary of expenditure 2006-07 2.pdf | Annus horribilis speech, 24 November 1992 | Anrhydeddau Tywysogaeth Cymru | application 100 bday.pdf | application wedding anniversary.pdf | Appointment of an Assistant Press Secretary | Appointment of new Royal colonels | Appointment of the new Governor General of Canada | Appointments to the Order of the Garter 2005 | Appointments to the Order of the Garter 2006 | Appointments to the Order of the Thistle | Archive photography and footage | Arms and Standard | Arrangements for the funeral of Princess Alice | Arrangements for The Queen's Christmas Broadcast to the Commonwealth | Astronomer Royal | Athelstan (r.924-939) | Australian Prime Minister's Commonwealth Games luncheon, 15 March 2006
- B | Background | Balmoral Castle | Baltic State Visits announced | Banquet held for King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, 25 October 2005 | Biography of the Queen Mother | Birthday Honours List 2005: Recipients of the Royal Victorian Order | Birthday messages | Blackhead's House in Riga, Latvia, 18 October 2006 | BP Education Leaflet 2005.pdf | British stamps | Buckingham Palace
- C | Cancellation of engagement at Arsenal Football Stadium, 26 October 2006 | Canute 'The Great' (r. 1016-1035) | Career | Carriages | Cars | Centenary of Alberta joining Confederation, Alberta Legislature, Canada, 24 May | Centenary of the Entente Cordiale, State Banquet, Paris, 5 April 2004 | Ceremonial bodies | Ceremony for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, 10 October 2002 | Changing the Guard | Channel Islands | Charities | Charities and patronages | Charles I (r. 1625-1649) | Charles I (r. 1625-1649) | Charles II (r. 1660-1685) | Charles II (r.1660 -1685) | charlesi.pdf | Childhood | Childhood | Childhood and early life | Childhood and teenage years | Children's literature party deadline reminder | Children's literature party held in Buckingham Palace Garden, 25 June 2006 | Choir | Christmas Broadcast 1953 | ... | Christmas Broadcast 2006 | Christmas message to the Armed Forces, 25 December 2006 | Christmas message to the Commonwealth, 25 December 2002 | Christmas Message to the Commonwealth, 25 December 2003 | Christmas Message to the Commonwealth, 25 December 2004 | Christmas Message to the Commonwealth, 25 December 2005 | Christmas Message to the Commonwealth, 25 December 2006 | Chronology of The Queen's involvement in the Paul Burrell Case | Civil List 2004-05.pdf | Civil List expenditure 2006.pdf | Clarence House | Clarence House summer opening 2003 | Coats of arms | Coinage and bank notes | Collections | Collections in the Royal Archives | Commonwealth | Commonwealth and world stamps | Commonwealth Blog - Allinta Rose | Commonwealth Blog - Mitchell Newton | Commonwealth Day message on the theme of democratic freedom, 8 March 2004 | Commonwealth Day message, 11 March 2002 | Commonwealth Day message, 13 March 2006 | Commonwealth Day message, developing partnerships, 10 March 2003 | Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting reception, Nigeria, 3 December 2003 | Commonwealth honours | Commonwealth members | Commonwealth visits since 1952 | Commonwealth visits since 1952 | Commonwealth visits since 1952 | Companions of Honour | Conservation and research | Constantine I (r. 862-877) | Constantine II (r. 900-943) | Constantine III (r. 995-997) | Contact a member of the Royal Family | Contact the Website Team | Contacting the Press Office | Contained fire at Buckingham Palace | continen.pdf | Coronation | Coronation Day speech, 2 June 1953 | Coronation honours announced | Coronation Oath, 2 June 1953 | Counsellors of State | Croeso | Culen (r. 966-971)
- D | Dates announced for the State Visit to the United States of America | David I (r. 1124-1153) | David II (r. 1329-1371) | Death | Death of Princess Margaret | Death of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother | Death of the Rt Hon Sir Angus Ogilvy | Dedication of the New Zealand War Memorial in London, 11 November 2006 | Demi Chef de Partie, Royal Kitchens | Descendants of Malcolm III | Design selection for Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother memorial | Details of the Golden Jubilee weekend | Details of The Queen's knee operation | Details of The Queen's London visits announced | Development of the honours system | Diamond Wedding anniversary | Diamond Wedding Anniversary: Service of Celebration at Westminster Abbey | Diary of events in the early life of The Queen | Dinner at Parliament House in Canberra, 14 March 2006 | Dinner commemorating the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, 18 November 2004 | Dinner in HMS Victory, 200th anniversary of Trafalgar, 21 October 2005 | Diùc Baile Bhòid | Dleastanas na Bànrighe | Donald I (r. 858-862) | Donald II (r. 889-900) | Donald III (r. 1093-1094, 1094-1097) | Dubh or Duff (r. 962-966) | Duncan I (r. 1034-1040) | Duncan II (r.1094)
- E | Earl Marshal | Early life | Early life and education | Edgar (r. 1097-1107) | Edgar (r. 959-975) | Edgar Atheling (r. Oct - Dec 1066) | Edmund I (r. 939-946) | Edmund II 'Ironside' (r Apr - Nov 1016) | Edred (r. 946-55) | Education | Edward Balliol (r. for periods 1332-1356) | Edward I 'Longshanks' (r. 1272-1307) | Edward II (r. 1307-1327) | Edward II 'The Martyr' (r. 975-979) | Edward III (r. 1327-1377) | Edward III 'The Confessor' (r. 1042-1066) | Edward IV (r. 1461-1470 and 1471-1483) | Edward 'The Elder' (r. 899-924) | Edward V (Apr-Jun 1483) | Edward VI (r.1547-1553) | Edward VII (r.1901-1910) | Edward VIII (Jan-Dec 1936) | edwardviii.pdf | Edwy (r.955-959) | Egbert, King of Wessex (r. 802-839) | Elizabeth I (r.1558-1603) | elizabethi.pdf | elizabethii.pdf | Emblems | End of The Queen's UK Golden Jubilee tour, Preston, 5 August 2002 | Engagement of The Prince of Wales | English Monarchs (400 AD - 1603) | Epiphany | Ethelbald (r.856-860) | Ethelbert (r. 860-866) | Ethelred (r.866-871) | Ethelred II 'The Unready' (R. 979-1013 and 1014-1016) | Ethelwulf (r. 839-856) | European monarchs family tree.pdf | Evening | Exhibition of the Royal Philatelic Collection to be displayed in America | Exhibitions and loans | Expression of thanks to those who sent 80th Birthday messages, 21 April 2006
- F | Faclair | Fact files | Facts and figures | Failte | Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver, Canada, 7 October 2002 | Family photographs of The Earl and Countess of Wessex with Lady Louise Windsor | Farewell dinner in Alberta, Canada, 24 May 2005 | Federal lunch in Regina, Saskatchewan, 20 May 2005 | Filming policy | Finance Manager | Financial arrangements of members of the Royal Family | Financial arrangements of The Prince of Wales | First Nations University of Regina, Saskatchew, Canada, 17 May 2005 | Foreign media | Founder's Day parade at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, 8 June 2006 | Freedom of Information | French Senate, State Visit to France, 6 April 2004 | Frequently asked questions | Frogmore | Funeral arrangements for Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother | Funeral arrangements for Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother announced | Further events to celebrate The Queen's 80th birthday
- G | Gallery | Garden Parties | Garden Party invitations for those born on Accession Day | Garter Service | Geirfa | General Synod | Gentlemen at Arms | George I (r. 1714-1727) | George II (r. 1727-1760) | George III | George III (r. 1760-1820) | George IV (r. 1820-1830) | George V (r. 1910-1936) | George VI (r.1936-1952) | georgeiii.pdf | georgevi.pdf | Giric (r. 878-889) | Golden Jubilee | Golden Jubilee gathering of Privileged Bodies, 21 March 2002 | Golden Jubilee poetry competition | Golden Jubilee Poetry Competition winners | Golden Jubilee speech in London's Guildhall, 4 June 2002 | Golden Jubilee speech, 4 June 2002 | Golden Jubilee visit to Liverpool, 25 July 2002 | Golden Wedding speech, 20 November 1997 | Government | Grant-in-Aid | Great seal of the realm | Green initiatives: Time-line | Greeting a member of The Royal Family | Greeting The Queen | Gun Salutes
- H | hanover.pdf | Hardicanute (r. 1035-1042) | Harewood House in Yorkshire, 11 July 2002 | Harold Harefoot (r. 1035-1040) | Harold II (r. Jan - Oct 1066) | Head of State expenditure | Head of State expenditure 2004-05.pdf | Henry I 'Beauclerc' (r. 1100-1135) | Henry II 'Curtmantle' (r. 1154-1189) | Henry III (r. 1216-1272) | Henry IV (r.1399-1413) | Henry V (r. 1413-1422) | Henry VI (r.1422-1461 and 1470-1471) | Henry VII (r. 1485-1509) | Henry VIII (r.1509-1547) | Her Majesty The Queen | Heritage | History | History and Background | History and present government | History of Jubilee souvenirs | History of the Monarchy | Home | Honours | Honours and appointments | Honours and decorations | Honours nomination | Honours of the Principality of Wales | Horsemanship | Hôtel De Ville in Toulouse, French State Visit, 7 April 2004 | Housekeeping Supervisor | How to contact a member of The Royal Family | How to contact The Queen | How UK and EU law affect The Queen
- I | Image gallery | Imperial College, 9 July 2007 | Imperial College, 9 July 2007 | In my area search results | Indulf (r. 954-962) | info sheet buckingham palace.pdf | info sheet crown jewels.pdf | info sheet dolls house.pdf | info sheet early life.pdf | info sheet family.pdf | info sheet flags.pdf | info sheet portrait.pdf | info sheet royal pets.pdf | info sheet transport.pdf | info sheet working day.pdf | info sheets changing the guard.pdf | Interests | Interregnum (1649-1660) | Interview policy | Introduction | Introduction to Head of State expenditure 2006-07.pdf | Investitures | Investitures | Isle of Man | IT User Support Team Leader
- J | Jamaican Parliament, 19 February 2002 | James I (r. 1406-1437) | James I (r. 1603-1625) | James II (r. 1437-1460) | James II (r.1685-1688) | James III (r. 1460-1488) | James IV (r.1488-1513) | James V (r.1513-1542) | James VI and I (r. 1567-1625) | James VII and II (r.1685-1689) | jamesi.pdf | John Balliol (r. 1292-1296) | John Lackland (r. 1199-1216) | jubilee_message.pdf
- K | Kenneth I (r. 843-858) | Kenneth II (r. 971-995) | Kenneth III (r. 971-997) | Kensington Palace | Key facts about Royal finances | Knighthoods | Korean State Visit announced for December 2004
- L | Lady Jane Grey (r. 10-19 July 1553) | Later years | Later years and death | Legislative Assembly in Nunavut, Canada, 4 October 2002 | Leisure activities | Links | Liveried Helper, Royal Mews | Lnch in Newport, South Wales, 13 June 2002 | Location | Lord Great Chamberlain | Lùchairt Taigh an Ròid | Lulach (r. 1057-1058) | Lunch at Mansion House, The Queen's 80th Birthday, 15 June 2006 | Lunch at the Hotel Matignon, Paris, 6 April 2004
- M | Macbeth (r. 1040-1057) | Malcolm I (r.943-954) | Malcolm II (r. 1005-1034) | Malcolm III (r. 1058-1093) | Malcolm IV (r. 1153-1165) | Maori gathering at Rehua Marae, Christchurch, New Zealand, 25 February 2002 | Margaret (r. 1286-1290) | Maritime theme day | Marking 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Guernsey, 9 May 2005 | Marriage and family | Mary I (r.1553-1558) | Mary, Queen of Scots (r.1542-1567) | Master of the Horse | Master of The Queen's Music | Media guidelines | Media information | Message following bomb blasts in London, 7 July 2005 | Message following the death of His Holiness Pope John Paul II, 2 April 2005 | Message of condolence to Mr Whatumoana Paki, Turangawaewae Maree, 17 Aug 2006 | Message of congratulations to solo yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur, 7 February 2005 | Message to a memorial service in St. Thomas Church, New York, 10 September 2002 | Message to congratulate the successful London 2012 Olympic bid team, 6 July 2005 | Message to England cricket captain following Ashes victory, 12 Sptember 2005 | Message to members of the Armed Forces serving in the Gulf, 20 March 2003 | Message to the Commonwealth, 12 March 2007 | Message to the England World Cup team, delivered by Prince William, 10 June 2006 | Message to the Foreign Secretary following the Boxing Day tsunami, 26 Dec 2004 | Message to the London 2012 Olympic bid team, 2 July 2005 | Message to the President of Pakistan following the earthquake, 9 October 2005 | Message to the President of the USA following Hurricane Katrina 31 August 2005 | Message to the public following their response to tsunami appeal, 1 January 2005 | Military career | Military career | Military career | Military career and involvement | Military involvement | Military involvement | Millennium Point, Birmingham, 2 July 2002 | Morning | MT Civil List 2005.pdf | Music Day at Buckingham Palace
- N | National Anthem | National Assembly for Wales, 13 June 2002 | National Assembly for Wales, 5 June 2003 | National Space Centre in Leicester, 1 August 2002 | Naval career | Naval career | New appointments to the Order of Merit | New appointments to the Order of the Thistle | New Assistant Private Secretary to The Queen | New British Monarchy web site launched | New honour for The Prince of Wales | New Master of The Queen's Music | New members of the Order of Merit 2007 | New members of the Order of Merit announced | New members of the Order of the Garter announced | New memorial to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother | New Royal Colonels appointed | New Royal Navy patronages 2006 | Newspaper Society lunch, London, 26 March 2002
- O | Offa (r. 757-796) | Official ceremonies to commemorate D-Day | Official commemoration of the 60th anniversary of D-Day in France, 6 June 2004 | Official Golden Jubilee photographs: The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh | Official photographs of The Queen to mark her 80th birthday | Official Royal posts | Official visit to The Netherlands | Opening ceremony of the 17th Commonwealth Games, Manchester, 25 July 2002 | Opening ceremony, eighth General Synod of the Church of England, 15 Nov 2005 | Opening of a memorial fountain to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, 6 July 2004 | Opening of a new headquarters, Royal Bank of Scotland, 14 September 2005 | Opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, Malta, 25 November 2005 | Opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government, Australia, 2 March 2002 | Opening of the exhibition 'Women and War', Imperial War Museum, 14 October 2003 | Opening of the new Ascot racecourse, 20 June 2006 | Opening of the new Australian War Memorial, London, 11 November 2003 | Opening of the new City Hall building in London, 23 July 2002 | Opening of the new colonnade of Sydney Opera House, 13 March 2006 | Opening of the new Scottish Parliament building, Edinburgh, 9 October 2004 | Opening of the newly redeveloped Ascot racecourse, 20 June 2006 | Opening of the third National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff, 5 June 2007 | Opening of the Welsh Assembly, Cardiff, 1 March 2006 | Opening the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Nigeria, 5 December 2005 | Opening the new Churchill Museum in London, 10 February 2005 | Order of Merit | Order of St. Michael and St. George | Order of St. Patrick | Order of the Bath | Order of the British Empire | Order of the Garter | Order of the Thistle | Origins of the Commonwealth | Osborne House, Isle of Wight, centenary of being open to the public, 19 May 2004 | Others | Ottawa, Canada, 13 October 2002 | Outward State visits since 1952 | Overseas engagements | Overseas visits | Overseas visits | Overview and PDF downloads
- P | Palace of Holyroodhouse | Parliament in Düsseldorf, State Visit to Germany, 4 November 2004 | Passports | Past events (Court Circular) | People profiles | Peresentation of Colours to the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, 4 May 2006 | Personal Assistant | Personal flags | PHH Education leaflet 2005.pdf | Photographic portraits of The Queen by Annie Liebovitz: Publication arrangements | plantage.pdf | Poet Laureate | Presentation of a Royal Charter to the University of Manchester, 22 October 2004 | Presentation of colours to the Honourable Artillery Company, 18 May 2007 | Presentation of new colours to the Fleet in Plymouth, 23 July 2003 | Presentation of new standards to the Household Cavalry, 21 May 2003 | Prince and Princess Michael of Kent | Prince Charles Edward | Prince Harry | Prince Henry Benedict | Prince James Francis Edward | Prince William | Princess Margaret Memorial Service | Princess Margaret: Funeral arrangements | Princess Margaret: Funeral Service arrangements | Privy Purse and Duchy of Lancaster | Prizes and awards | Property Grant in Aid 2004-05.pdf | Property Grant-in-Aid 2005-06.pdf | Property Services Grant-in-Aid 2006-07.pdf | Public duties | Public life 1952-1961 | Public life 1962-1971 | Public life 1972-1981 | Public life 1982-1991 | Public life 1992-2001 | Public life 2002-present | Public role | Public work
- Q | Queen and anniversary messages | Queen and Australia | Queen and Canada | Queen and charities | Queen and Commonwealth Visits | Queen and Crown dependencies | Queen and Government | Queen and Honours | Queen and Jamaica | Queen and New Zealand | Queen and Northern Ireland Assembly | Queen and other faiths | Queen and passport | Queen and Prime Minister | Queen and Privy Council | Queen and Royal Visits | Queen and Scottish Parliament | Queen and St Christopher and Nevis | Queen and St Lucia | Queen and St Vincent and the Grenadines | Queen and the Armed Forces | Queen and the Church | Queen and the Church of England | Queen and the Church of Scotland | Queen and the Law | Queen and the law in Scotland | Queen and the Solomon Islands | Queen and Tuvalu | Queen and voting | Queen and Welsh Assembly | Queen Elizabeth Memorial: Shortlisted designers announced | Queen in Parliament | Queen Victoria | Queen's Award for Enterprise | Queen's Award for Voluntary Service | Queen's role in the administration of Justice
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S
spock
Suche nach Personen-Informationen
(E?)(L?) http://www.spock.com/
Hier kann man nach dem Vorkommen von lebenden und verstorbenen Personen im Netz suchen. Interessant ist z.B. dass man bei Eingabe eines Ortes eine Liste historischer (oder auch lebender) Persönlichkeiten erhält, die in diesem Ort geboren wurden, zeitweise lebten, starben oder sonst einen besonderen Bezug zu diesem Ort hatten.
Die Suche nach "Grimm" lieferte z.B. viele Treffer zu den Linguisten Jakob und Wilhelm Grimm.
(E?)(L?) http://www.spock.com/q/Etymologie
(E?)(L?) http://www.spock.com/q/Etymology
(E?)(L?) http://www.spock.com/q/Grimm
- Jacob Grimm male, deceased
- writer fairy tales Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm Hanau Hesse-Kassel Brothers Grimm Add tag
- Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (Hanau, January 4, 1785 - September 20, 1863 in Berlin), German philologist, jurist and mythologist, was born at Hanau, in...
- See: Tags (18) | Pictures (4) | Related People (0) | News | Contact
- Web: gutenberg.org | Wikipedia | orlabs.oclc.org | jacobgrimm
- Wilhelm Grimm male, deceased
- writer Göttingen Sieben Wilhelm Carl Grimm The Göttingen Seven Ernst August The Brothers Grimm … Brothers Grimm The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm Add tag
- Wilhelm Carl Grimm was a German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm. He was born in Hanau, Germany and in 1803 he started studying law at the...
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- Web: gutenberg.org | Wikipedia
- Upload picture Ludwig Emil Grimm male, deceased
- painter Ad naturam Marie Böttner The Wars of Liberation Willingshauser painter colony Hanau … Brothers Grimm Add tag
- Ludwig Emil Grimm (March 14 1790 in Hanau, 4 April 1863 in Kassel) was a painter and engraver. He was the younger brother of Brothers Grimm:...
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- Web: Wikipedia
- Upload picture Philipp Grimm male
- German lawyer Brothers Grimm Add tag
- Philipp Grimm (died 1796) was a German lawyer and father to the Brothers Grimm and seven other children. He was wife to Dorothea Grimm. Some modern...
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- Web: Wikipedia
- Upload picture GM Grimm male
- underground rapper underground hip hop American build Superstar Jet Jaguar … The Grimm Reaper MF Grimm Add tag
- Percy Carey, also known as MF Grimm, GM Grimm, The Grimm Reaper, Build (and Destroy), and Superstar Jet Jaguar, is an underground rapper from New...
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- Web: Wikipedia | americanhunger | daybydayent | mfgrimm
- Derek Grimm male, 33 years old
- University of Missouri William Derek Grimm American sacramento king Missouri Tigers men's basketball player NBA Add tag
- William Derek Grimm was an American professional basketball player. A 6'9" forward from the University of Missouri, Grimm was never drafted by an...
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- Web: Wikipedia
- Upload picture Dan Grimm male, 66 years old
- University of Colorado offensive lineman American football university of colorado at boulder from Iowa American football center … Daniel Jay Grimm Add tag
- Daniel Jay Grimm (born February 7, 1941 in Perry, Iowa, USA) was an American football offensive lineman in the NFL for four different teams. He...
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- Web: Wikipedia
- Upload picture Helge Grimm
- Senior Frontend Engineer SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH Add tag
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- Upload picture Richard Grimm
- Senior Counsel Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Add tag
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- ...
- People 1-10 of 4755 found.
spoonerism
a transposition of usually initial sounds of two or more words
(E1)(L1) http://www.m-w.com/
"I'd like to have a chilled greese," instead of "I'd like to have a grilled cheese."
The British clergyman and educator William Archibald 'Spooner' (1844-1930) often had to speak in public, but he was a nervous man and his tongue frequently got tangled up. So he would say things like "a blushing crow" when he meant "a crushing blow." Spooner's letter reversals became the stuff of legend (and undoubtedly gave his listeners many a laugh), and by 1900 his name had inspired the term for that particular variety of public-speaking gaffe. (by Merriam Webster)
Stigler’s law of eponymy, Whitehead’s law, Arnold’s law (W3)
(E?)(L?) http://members.aol.com/jeff570/e.html
(E?)(L?) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/whitehead/
(E?)(L?) http://www.ams.org/notices/199704/arnold.pdf
Diese drei Epyonyme bezeichnen Gesetzmässigkeiten, die die Eponymbildung gerade anzweifeln.
So besagt das von "Stephen Stigler" aufgestellte Gesetz, dass keine wissenschaftliche Entdeckung nach seinem wirklichen Entdecker benannt wird (1980).
Der britische Mathematiker und Philosoph "Alfred North Whitehead" (1861-1947) erweiterte diesen Ansatz mit der These, dass "alles Wichtige schon vorher von jemandem gesagt wurde, der es nicht entdeckte".
Whitehead's Law wird auch "Arnold’s law" genannt, nach "Vladimir Igorevich Arnold".
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tawdry - St. Audrey - St. Etheldreda (W2)
(E1)(L1) http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=tawdry&searchmode=none
(E3)(L1) http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/5402
(E3)(L1) http://www.gutenberg.net/etext04/dcvgr10.txt
(E3)(L?) http://wordcraft.infopop.cc/eponyms.htm
(E?)(L1) http://jeff560.tripod.com/words16.html
(E1)(L1) http://www.marthabarnette.com/learn.html
(E1)(L1) http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=tawdry&x=17&y=10
(E1)(L1) http://www.word-detective.com/110999.html#tawdry
(E3)(L1) http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/archives/0996
tawdry Sep 96
(E1)(L1) http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-taw1.htm
(E2)(L1) http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/t/t0062600.html
Tawdry - 02/19/2003
(E5)(L?) http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/thes/t/t1510900.html
Dafür dass dieses Wort auf eine Heilige zurückgeht, hat es sich eigentlich recht schäbig verhalten. Es gehört zu den "Ampelwörtern", die sich irgendwann einen Buchstaben von einem Nachbarwort geklaut haben.
Jedenfalls soll "tawdry" auf die Königin "Etheldreda" (630 - 679) von Northumbria zurückgehen. Man sagt, dass Sie in ihrer Jugend gern ausgefallene Halsketten trug. Später verzichtete sie jedoch auf Mann und Krone und verpflichtete sich als Nonne. Der Halstumor, an dem sie schliesslich starb, hielt sie für eine göttliche Vergeltung ihrer Vorliebe für Halsketten. Schließlich wurde ihr Name "St. Etheldreda" zu "Saint Audrey" vereinfacht und aus "Saint Audry" wurde "tawdry" mit der Bedeutung "auffällig", "schreiend", "protzig" ("cheap" and "gaudy" in appearance or quality).
Die Bedeutung von "tawdry" scheint sich jedoch nicht direkt auf ihre frühe Vorliebe für Halsscmuck zu beziehen, sondern soll erst einen kleinen Umweg gemacht haben. Ihr Schrein wurde nach ihrem Tod zu einem Pilgerziel. Jährlich wurde ihr zu Ehren am 17. Oktober eine Messe gehalten. Auf dem damit einhergehenden Jahrmarkt wurde viel Tand und insbesondere werbewirksam "St. Audrey's lace" genannte Halsketten verkauft. Im 17. Jh. mutierte diese zu "tawdry lace". Und schliesslich bezeichnete "tawdry" alles was "schlecht und billig" war.
Der ursprüngliche Name "Etheldreda" (altengl. "Aethelthryth") geht auf eine alte englische Bedeutung "Adele" = "edel" und idg. "*at-al-" = "Rasse, Familie" zurück (und weiter auf idg. "*at(i)" = "over", "beyond", "super" + "*al" = "to nourish" + "ðryð" = "might", also "die mächtig Überernährten").
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Uriah Heeps - a hypocratical person
after 'Uriah Heeps', a character in Charles Dicken's 'David Copperfield'
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Wellington
'give it some welly' = often shouted to a person as encouragement or criticism, asks for more effort to be put into whatever he or she is doing.
It dates from the 1970s. 'welly' is a common British abbreviation for the equally British term 'wellington boots', these being waterproof rubber boots named after the First Duke of Wellington.
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Bücher zur Kategorie:
Etymologie, Étymologie, Etymology
UK Vereinigtes Königreich (Großbritannien u. Nordirland), Royaume-Uni de Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande du Nord, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Personen, Personnes, Persons, Eponyme
amazon - Eponyme, Eponymes, Eponym
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Ehrlich, Eugene
What's in a Name?
How Proper Names Became Everyday Words
(E?)(L?) http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805059431/etymologety01-20
(E?)(L?) http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805059431/etymologety0f-21
(E?)(L?) http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805059431/etymologetymo-21
(E?)(L?) http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805059431/etymologety0d-21
(E?)(L?) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805059431/etymologetymo-20
Sprache: Englisch
Taschenbuch - 238 Seiten - Owl Books (NY)
Erscheinungsdatum: 1. April 2000
ISBN: 0805059431
"Venn diagram", "Möbius strip", and "Achilles' heel" are all phrases that clearly derive from the names of the persons who described, discovered, or inspired them. But a lot of English words one would never know had originated in proper names. So knowing, however, enriches one's understanding of the word, whether the person behind it is real or imagined, historical or literary, a scientist or a mythical figure. The next time you see a "maverick" (Samuel Augustus Maverick, Texas cattle rancher) "epicure" (Epicurus, Greek philosopher) whisk up a tantalizing "béchamel" sauce (Marquis de Béchamel), don't "hector" (Trojan hero) him about his "sideburns" (Union general Ambrose Everett Burnside) or his "cardigan" (James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of). Just grab a "sandwich" (also Earl of), your favorite "teddy bear" (President T. Roosevelt), and a copy of Eugene Ehrlich's wonderfully entertaining "What's in a Name", for a laze under the "bougainvillea" (Louis Antoine de Bougainville). No "Baedeker" (German publisher) can recommend an afternoon better spent. - Jane Steinberg
Namen die zu Wörtern wurden. Über Begriffe wie "Achilles' heel", "Bowie's knives", "Amelia Jenks Bloomer's bloomers", "Reverend William Archibald Spooner's", "spoonerisms".
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Freeman, Morton S. / Newman, Edwin (Vorwort)
A New Dictionary of Eponyms
(E?)(L1) http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195093542/etymologety01-20
(E?)(L1) http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195093542/etymologety0f-21
(E?)(L1) http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195093542/etymologetymo-21
(E?)(L1) http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195093542/etymologety0d-21
(E?)(L1) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195093542/etymologetymo-20
Taschenbuch: 300 Seiten
Verlag: Oxford University Press Inc, USA (Oktober 1997)
Sprache: Englisch
Kurzbeschreibung
A fascinating survey of words and phrases derived from the names of people, written in an entertaining and anecdotal style.
Synopsis
Do you approve of censoring the works of great writers? Some might contend that to "bowdlerize" a great writer's work would be to diminish its overall quality. Others, like "Thomas Bowdler", whose eraser danced over every Shakespeare play, would argue that all modest people should be able to read a great work without blushing. For attacking the classics, Mr. Bowdler has been immortalized as the world's best-known, self-appointed literary censor. And because of his efforts the term "bowdlerize" has become eponymous with his name.
Alternatively, the word "bikini" - defined as a two-piece bathing suit for women - has been a linguistic mystery since 1947 when these suits were first seen on the beaches of the French Riviera, a year after the United States began testing atom bombs on the "Bikini atoll" of the Marshall Islands. Some shocked people said that the impact of the scanty swimsuit on male beach loungers was like the devastating effect of the atomic bomb. Whoosh! A simpler and more credible notion is that the daring swimsuits resembled the attire worn by women on the Bikini atoll.
Created about a century ago, the term "eponym" is itself a coinage from two Greek words, "epi", "on" or "upon," and "onuma", "a name". But its broadened meaning, as dictionaries set it out, refers to a word derived from a proper name.
For instance, "Salisbury steak" - a popular diner menu item created from common hamburger and dressed up with brown gravy to make it more appealing - is named after "James H. Salisbury", an English physician who promoted a diet of ground beef.
A Dictionary of Eponyms explores the origins of hundreds of these everyday words from "Argyle socks" to "zeppelins". Written in an entertaining and anecdotal style, and with a foreword by Edwin Newman, the book includes a brief biography of the individual whose name became associated with an item or concept as well as information on how and when the name entered the language. If you've ever wondered just where terms like "cardigan sweater", "pamphlet", and "robot" come from, Morton Freeman does more than simply define them - he brings them to life.
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Mann, Roger (Autor)
Naming the Rose
Discover Who Roses Are Named for
(E?)(L1) http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1741668301/etymologety01-20
(E?)(L1) http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/1741668301/etymologety0f-21
(E?)(L1) http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/1741668301/etymologetymo-21
(E?)(L1) http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1741668301/etymologety0d-21
(E?)(L1) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1741668301/etymologetymo-20
Gebundene Ausgabe: 224 Seiten
Verlag: Random House (Au) (Oktober 2008)
Sprache: Englisch
Kurzbeschreibung
The rose brings beauty and joy to those who grow and admire them. Often a rose will bear a person's name, for the breeding of roses is an art and, like all artists, the raisers of roses enjoy dedicating their creations to people they love or admire. But who was "Madame Hardy"? "Bettina"? "Lorraine Lee" or "Henri Martin"? Vita Sackville-West asked this question many years ago and rose-lovers are still asking. Here, at last, in an elegant, timeless and beautifully illustrated edition, is the answer. Anyone who loves these delightful flowers will find this collection of stories as beautiful as the bloom itself.
Erstellt: 2010-02
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