LET’S PLAY THE NAME GAME

Quisling, casanova, macintosh, biro, hoover. Where on earth do these everyday words come from? Here are the answers…

AVE you ever used the word “quisling” or heard someone else do so to describe a traitor or conspirator? Today the word is probably better known than the person who gave us the term, which originates in a largely forgotten chapter of the Second World War.

On September 10 1945 – 75 years ago this week – Norwegian Nazi sympathizer Vidkun Quisling was convicted of murder and treason and sentenced to death.

The politician had headed a puppet government in the country after its invasion and occupation by Hitler’s forces in 1940.

He co- operated with fascist policies and the persecution of the Jewish population.

Then, following the Allied victory in the conflict, he was put on trial by his own people and after being found guilty Quisling was executed by firing squad on October 24, 1945.

By then, thanks to the ex- army officer’s treacherous conduct, his surname was already being used in everyday English to describe any duplicitous collaborator.

One British writer described the word as a “gift from the gods. If they had been ordered to invent a new word for traitor they could hardly have hit upon a more brilliant combination of letters. Aurally it contrives to suggest something at once slippery and tortuous.”

Prime Minister Winston Churchill was just one of those who eagerly began deploying “quisling” as a noun in his speeches as he lambasted others who slavishly colluded with the enemy.

After the war it became commonplace in conversation. Just this July, Lord Patten, former governor of Hong Kong, used it to describe Carrie Lam, the country’s Chief Executive, for her acquiescence to China’s policies during the recent protests.

YET “quisling” is just one example of someone’s moniker morphing into a word that has become a part of our standard lexicon.

Of course, some of these words – known as eponyms – have obvious roots. Elizabeth I, for instance, gave her name to the “Elizabethan” era. while we derive the word sadism from the scandalous French sexual fantasist the Marquis de Sade.

We might describe something underhand as being Machiavellian, after scheming Renaissance diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli, or something involving the survival of the fittest as being Darwinian, after the naturalist Charles Darwin.

Language might be referred to as Shakespearean; a stirring speech as Churchillian. A verbal slip is often dubbed Freudian, after the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud or a chilling dystopian future as Orwellian after the author of 1984, George Orwell.

Meanwhile tough rules or regulations are often referred to as Draconian – after the ancient Greek legislator famed for his harsh laws.

A womanising man might be described as a casanova, after legendary Italian lover Giacomo Girolamo Casanova, said to have bedded 130 during his lifetime.

Other famous figures have given their names to certain things. Most people know that the sandwich is derived from the 18th- century Earl Sandwich’s fondness for enjoying cold meat between two slices of bread while playing cards.

Likewise, the Wellington boot originates with victorious Waterloo general the Duke of Wellington, a popular currant- based biscuit with Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi. The cardigan is named from The Earl of Cardigan, who led the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War, after the knitted wool waistcoats worn by officers during the conflict.

Inventors have lent their names to lots of workaday words. The macintosh raincoat is named after Charles Macintosh, who invented revolutionary waterproof fabrics. The word watt for a unit of power stems from fellow Scottish inventor James Watt. Adolphe Sax gave us the saxophone; Hungarian László Bíró the popular ballpoint pen.

Diesel is named after German inventor Rudolf Diesel who came up with the engine that used the fuel.

Interestingly, petrol bombs were nicknamed Molotov cocktails during the Second World War after a Soviet politician, Vyacheslav Molotov.

Tarmac has its roots in British road engineer John McAdam, while Belisha beacons were named after Leslie Hore- Belisha, the UK minister of transport in 1934 when they were first installed at crossings.

“Crapper” became popular slang for a toilet, thanks to the successful 19th- century plumber Thomas Crapper, though it’s a myth that he invented the water closet. It’s probably down to his name appearing on cisterns.

In a similar way, US businessman William

CLEANING UP: But Hoover didn’t invent the vacuum

Henry Hoover, who became synonymous with the vacuum thanks to his company’s success in selling the gadgets, did not devise them. You are less likely to realise that Jacuzzi hot tubs were named after Italian Candido Enzo Jacuzzi who invented the whirlpool baths in the 1940s to ease the pain of his young son who was suffering with rheumatoid arthritis.

Also little- known is that the magnolia tree was so called in honour of French botanist Pierre Magnol or that his countryman, acrobat Jules Léotard, pioneered the gymnastic costume. More French folk are responsible for words such as guillotine, first proposed by Joseph- Ignace Guillotin as a “humane” form of execution. Silhouettes were coined as a term for a portrait done on the cheap after penny- pinching finance minister Étienne de Silhouette. Nicotine comes from Jean Nicot who introduced tobacco to France. There are many other words in daily use today with intriguing back stories. Take “maverick” for a nonconformist. This came from Sam Maverick, an eccentric 19th- century Texas rancher who refused to brand his cattle as was the usual custom. The term boycott, for coldshouldering someone or something, comes from the tale of a land agent in Ireland called Charles C. Boycott. He became unpopular in the 1880s for failing to

FIRST WORD IN TREACHERY: Norwegian wartime fascist collaborator Vidkun Quisling

reduce rents and evicting tenant farmers. He was ostracised in the local community, with workers refusing to harvest his crops and shopkeepers shunning him.

AR has thrown up lots of new words such as shrapnel, which dates back to Henry Shrapnel, a British officer who perfected exploding shells back in the 18th century. Sideburns were so called after popular US general Ambrose Burnside who sported bushy mutton chops.

The word chauvinist, for a superior attitude, originally came from French soldier Nicholas Chauvin’s blind devotion to Napoleon Bonaparte’s imperialist ideology.

And the phrase “the full Monty” is reckoned to come from General Bernard Montgomery’s habit of starting each day on campaign with a traditional fry- up.

An American, judge Charles Lynch gave us lynching for his fondness of punishments carried out beyond the remit of the law; US social reformer Amelia Bloomer gave us the word bloomers for the distinctive style of women’s skirts and undergarments.

And, finally, if anyone calls you a “dunce” for not knowing the derivation of these eponyms, tell them the word comes from the 13thcentury monk, John Duns Scotus.

He was an acclaimed theologian, but when his views fell out of favour during the 16th- century Reformation anyone following them became known as a “Duns”.