The namesake
When a name or a noun is drawn from a famous person
Eponym comes from the Greek eponymous “given as a name, giving one’s name to something,” as a plural noun (short for eponymoi, heroes) denoting founders( legendary or real) of tribes or cities. Thus the American capital in Washington DC was never the residence of its eponymous first President, George Washington. When you speak of the Victorian era you are referringto the period of its eponymous monarch, Queen Victoria. The Modi government is headed by its eponymous Prime Minister, Na rend ra Mo di; O ba mac are is a health insurance scheme named for its eponymous President, Ba rack O ba ma; That cher is mi san economic philosophy of laissez-fa ire capitalism named for its strident advocate, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Eponyms are not merely useful for referring to politics. A Tudor building refers to a style made popular during the rule of its eponymous British dynasty, and a Georgian square to the eponymous King George III. “Those Edwardian young men in spa ts” suggeststhe youth in question lived in the time of Britain’s first post-Victorian monarch King Edward VII. Bowl er hats, then worn by those men in spats, were invented by the eponymousWilliam Bowl er. Queen Anne furniture alludes to the eponymous British monarch of the beginning of the 18th century.
Common household products also refer, often unknowingly, to their eponymous creators .“I’ ll Hoover it up” comes from the inventor of the vacuum-cleaner that bore his name; “I need to fill up some diesel” takes its name from the eponymous German, Rudolf Diesel, who invented that fuel ;“let’ s take the kids on the Ferris wheel” credits the eponymous engineer who first came up with that enormous contraption to whirl seated people around for pleasure. If you want to hop into the jacuzzi, you are tipping your hat (or doffing your clothes) to an eponymous pair of Italian brothers. If you slip on some leotards, there’ s an eponymous French fashion designer, Jacques Leotard, you’ re memorialising. And if you eat a sandwich, you are paying tribute to the inveterate gambler the eponymous Earl of Sandwich, who had the snack invented for him so he didn’ t have to interrupt his card games for a meal. When I visited Sudan in the late 1970s, i twas common to hear people saying “I’ll pick you up in my Tata,” without being conscious of the eponymous Indian vehicle manufacturer.
One “boycotts” people throughout the English-speaking world without knowing a thing about the eponymous Captain Boycott whose unpopularity led to the term. I may as well stop here for fear of being boycotted myself….