Language Arts - Word Analysis
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Language Arts - Word Analysis - Eponyms

Eponyms

Eponyms are words which are named after a person or a place. Here are some examples:


	America - Amerigo Vespucci was involved in the European
		  discovery of the Americas.

	atlas - Atlas was a giant of great strength in Greek myths.
		  Many map books pictured Atlas holding a globe on
		  his back and soon such books were called atlases.

	bikini - The Bikini Atol is where many nuclear bombs were
		  tested. Somehow this name was given to skimpy
		  swimsuits.

	bologna - A city in Italy named Bologna was famous for
		  smoked sausage which became known as bologna
		  or baloney.

	braille - Louis Braille, who was blind, developed a system
		  of raised dots to represent the letters of the
		  alphabet.

	diesel - Rudolf Diesel was a German engineer who invented
		  the diesel engine.

	guppy - R. J. Lechmere Guppy discovered this small tropical
		  fish in Trinidad.

	levis - Levi Strauss originally made these work pants during
		  the California Gold Rush.

	marathon - In 490 B.C. a messenger ran from Marathon to Athens.
		  Both of these cities are in Greece and they are
		  about 26 miles apart.

	Morse code - Samuel Morse devised a system of short and long
		  beeps to communicate.


Eponyms are quite common in everyday conversation. Here are some more examples:


	bunsen burner - Used in chemistry to heat mixtures and developed
		  by a German chemist named Robert Bunsen.

	panic - The mythical Greek god Pan was known to scare people
		  out of their wits. Panic now means "strong fear
		  which causes people to act out of control."

	pasteurization - Louis Pasteur discovered a method of killing
		  germs in milk which is known as pasteurization.

	rugby - The sport of rugby (which is a lot like American football)
		  was first played in the English town of Rugby.

	sandwich - The Earl of Sandwich is credited for instructing a
		  servant to bring him meat between two slices of
		  bread.

	saxophone - The saxophone was invented by a guy named Antoine
		  Sax of Belgium.

	teddy bear - President Theodore Roosevelt (who was sometimes called
		  Teddy) is said to have saved the life of a brown bear
		  cub. After that "teddy bears" became the name used for
                  stuffed toy bears.

	tuxedo - This type of suit was first worn by a person attending
		  a party at the Tuxedo Park Country Club in New York.

	canary - The Canary Islands are where these fancy birds were first
		  found.

	candy - The French Prince of Conde liked sweet foods and he became
		  famous for his fondness of sweet treats.

	Fahrenheit - Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was an engineer who created 
                  a temperature scale now named after him.

        Gore-Tex - Bill Gore was a chemical engineer and the main inventor
                  of Gore-Tex fabrics.

        sideburns - Ambrose Everett Burnside was an American soldier who was
                  famous for his distinctive style of facial hair, which is
                  now known as sideburns.

        Asperger Syndrome - Hans Asperger was an Austrian psychologist who
                  studied autism and various mental disorders.
                  
        boycott - Charles Boycott was an employer whose employees organized
                  the first boycott.
                  
        Buddhism - Gautama Buddha was a religious leader who lived around
                   400 B.C. in eastern India.
                   
	Caesar Salad - Caesar Cardini was a restaurant owner who created
	           this particular salad in the 1920s.
	            
	Celsius - Anders Celsius was a Swedish scientist who proposed the 
	           Celsius temperature scale in 1742.
	            
        Cyrillic - Saint Cyril was a Greek missionary who developed 
                   the Cyrillic alphabet during the 800s            

        Adidas - Adi Dassler was a German businessman who founded the German 
                   sportswear company known as Adidas.
                   
        graham crackers - Sylvester Graham was a preacher and dietary
                    reformer recommending whole-grain bread.
                    
        poinsettia - Joel Roberts Poinsett was a botanist who introduced the
                    poinsettia to the USA in 1825.
                               

        Okazaki fragments - Reiji and Tsuneko Okazaki discovered these short
                     sequences of DNA nucleotides which are an important aspect
                     of the process of DNA replication.

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