Who doesn’t want to be immortalized? Who doesn’t want their name remembered long after they’ve ceased to be? That’s a seductive dream for anyone, writers included. But what if your name became synonymous with a dastardly deed, or some otherwise undesirable term?
There are a lot of words in our vocabulary that derive straight from a person’s name, forever memorializing a less-than-honorable act or way of living. Here’s a list of such words and their inspirations:
Awful words named for real people
My favorites? I’ve got a preference for “spoonerism” only because I catch myself doing it all the time. I looked the term up a while back, thinking there had to be a scientific term for mixing up my words, and bo and lehold, here it is.
“Draconian” is also a fun one, since it comes from a guy (an Athenian law-maker named Draco, who may or may not have existed) who applied the death penalty to such menial crimes as being lazy, or taking a piss in an alley. I think reinstating capital punishment for laziness would be a nice spur in the economy’s rear, wouldn’t it?
Any others you think should be added to the list?
I see that smile.
Spoonerisms, hahahaha. I speak that language (mom my always called it Medical Greek). My daughter does too. What is truly amazing is that most people I know are so used to me doing it that we don’t always catch one when it happens right away. We we do, it makes us laugh harder for not noticing.
They don’t have crass on there!
Crassus was a Roman politician who decided to be a fireman. He had a tank of water hauled behind horses as his firetruck.
The reason why the concept of “crass” attached to his name is because of Crassus’ habit of haggling with the owners of the property over what his fee would be while their house was burning down. He usually ended up owning the property he had saved, with the previous owners living there as his tenants. He became extremely wealthy.
That sounds like some of the earliest mob activities, too. Guys wandering into shops, looking around going, “Hey, this place is real nice. Would be a shame if someone flicked a match in here. Bet all dis stuff’d go up like pine needles, yeah? What’s say we talk?”
Thanks for the insight, Goblin. I’ve now officially learned something new for the day, plus found inspiration for my new firefighting business.
Man I had a couple doozy typos up there… “mom my” was not on purpose… I meant to write MY MOM.