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eponym|ˈɛpənɪm|
[ad. Gr. ἐπώνυµ-ος (a.) given as a name, (b.) giving one's name to a thing or person, f. ἐπί upon + ὄνοµα, æol. ὄνυµα name.]
1. One who gives, or is supposed to give, his name to a people, place, or institution; e.g. among the Greeks, the heroes who were looked upon as ancestors or founders of tribes or cities. Also in Lat. form eponymus.
1846Grote Greece i. vii. (1869) I. 150 Pelops is the eponym or name-giver of the Peloponnesus. 1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. ii. vii. 481 The legendary eponymus of the district. 1877Merivale Rom. Triumv. ii. 35 An ancient patrician race, which claimed as its eponym, Julus, the son of æneas. 1883Q. Rev. Apr. 297 The eponymus of which [Skinner's Horse] was his bosom friend.
b. transf. One ‘whose name is a synonym for’ something.
1873Symonds Grk. Poets x. 306 Theocritus, Bion and Moschus are the Eponyms of Idyllic poetry. 1875Merivale Gen. Hist. Rome ii. (1877) 7 Saturn becomes the eponym of all useful and humane discovery. 1875Bryce Holy Rom. Emp. xi. (ed. 5) 177 Charles [the Great]..had become, so to speak, an eponym of Empire.
2. Assyriology. A functionary (called limu in Assyrian) who, like the ἄρχων ἐπώνυµος at Athens (see eponymous 2), gave his name to his year of office. Also attrib., as in eponym-list, eponym-year; eponym-canon, the record which gives the succession of these officers.
1864Rawlinson Anc. Mon. II. viii. 261 The list of eponyms obtained from the celebrated ‘Canon’. 1886C. R. Conder Syrian Stone-Lore ix. 325 The Sabeans also adopted the Assyrian system of eponyms to mark the year.
3. [ad. Gr. ἐπώνυµον an additional designation, cognomen] A distinguishing title.
1863C. M. Yonge Chr. Names II. 264 Jarl..was a favourite eponym. 1881Fair Trade Cry 11 We are the modern Phœnicians, or to take a lower eponym, the Pickfords of the world.
Hence epoˈnymic a., of or pertaining to an eponym; that is an eponym. eˈponymism, the practice of accounting for names of places or peoples by referring them to supposed prehistoric eponyms. eˈponymist = eponym 1. eˈponymize v. trans., to serve as eponym to.
1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. i. 179 The young strength of the eponymic colonists. 1871Tylor Prim. Cult. I. 7 Eponymic myths which account for the parentage of a tribe by turning its name into the name of an imaginary ancestor. 1883Sat. Rev. 23 June 784 Its patron saint or eponymic hero. 1858Gladstone Homer I. 347 The foregoing sources of eponymism. Ibid. I. 85 Nor does he establish any relation whatever between any of the four races and any common ancestor or eponymist. 1862Ansted Channel Isl. 320 The eponymist of St. Helier's was confounded with Hilarius Bishop of Poitou. 1866J. Rose tr. Ovid's Fasti Notes 236 Pallas herself eponymizes the Pali fire-worshippers.
Add:[1.] c. A proper name used generically; more loosely, the generic name itself, or any noun phrase of specific meaning which includes a proper name.
1885Jrnl. Nerv. & Mental Dis. XII. 349 The very awkward dionymic eponym, Circulus Willisi. 1946J. Dobson Anatomical Eponyms 2 A great many of the old and well-known eponyms that perpetuated the names of some of the masters of Anatomy have been successfully eliminated. 1960[see Pendred n.]. 1982Daily Tel. 23 Dec. 6/7 Some eponyms are euphemisms of a sort—Casanova, dunce and lush, for instance. |