Eponyms
Words Based on the Names of People
New words enter a language in many ways. Below are 15 words
which came into English because of unusual things which people did. Each of these words
was originally the name of a real person. Use your dictionary to help you select the
correct word for each blank.
- chauvinist
- bobbies
- leotard
- bowdlerize
- margarita
- Braille
- gerrymander
- bloody Mary
- guillotine
- casanova
- boycott
- Caesarean
- silhouette
- bloomers
- derby
1._______________: a close-fitting garment for the torso,
worn by dancers, acrobats, and the like; after Julius _____ , a 19th-century French aerial
gymnast.
2._______________: a machine for beheading; after Joseph
__________ , a French physician who proposed its use in 1789 as more humane than hanging.
3._______________: a man who is a promiscuous and
unscrupulous lover; after Giovanni __________ , an Italian adventurer, lover, and writer,
1725-98.
4.._______________: a stiff felt hat with a dome-shaped
crown and rather narrow rolled brim; after Edward Stanley, 12th Earl of ______ , who in
1780 founded the _______ horse race at Epsom Downs, England, where these hats are worn.
5._______________: a system of writing for the blind; named
after Louis __________ , the French teacher of the blind who invented it in 1852.
6._______________: a vodka and tomato juice drink; after
the nickname of __________ I, Queen of England, 1553-58, notorious for her persecution of
Protestants.
7._______________: an outline image; from Etienne de
__________ , the French finance minister, 1757, who advocated economies that included
buying such paper portraits instead of painted miniatures.
8._______________: excessively patriotic or devoted to an
ideology; after Nicolas _________ , a legendary French soldier devoted to Napoleon.
9._______________: full, loose trousers gathered at the
knee; after Mrs. Amelia __________ , an American social reformer who advocated such
clothing, 1851.
10._______________: in Great Britain, police officers;
after Sir __________ Peel, the statesman who organized the London police force, 1850.
11._______________: surgical removal of a child from the
uterus through an abdominal incision; after the Roman emperor, Julius __________ , born c.
102 B.C., in this manner, according to legend.
12._______________: to combine against in a policy of
nonintercourse for economic or political reasons; after Charles C. __________ , an English
land agent in Ireland, ostracized in 1880 for refusing to reduce rents.
13._______________: to delete written matter considered
indelicate or obscene; after Thomas __________ , British editor of an expurgated edition
of Shakespeare, 1825.
14._______________: to divide an election district in an
unnatural way, to favor one political party; after Elbridge __________ , and the
salamander, for the shape of a Massachusetts election district created, 1812, during his
governorship.
15._______________: An alcoholic drink, made with tequila
and lime juice, invented by a bartender in El Paso, Texas, supposedly name for his
sweetheart.
— Adapted from The World Almanac 1993 (CD-ROM).
Now comes the tricky part. Use the best eponym in each
sentence.
- Feminists sometimes refer to a man who is extremely
prejudiced against women as a male _______________ pig.
- Texas’ congressional districts have been so
_______________ that one district stretches from Houston to Dallas.
- Some people have the ability to look at your profile and,
using a pair of scissors, cut out a _____________ in minutes.
- _______________ opened the world of print to the
sight-deprived.
- During the French Revolution, thousands were decapitated
using the _______________.
- Repressive governments often _______________ movies.
- Men rarely wear _______________ in public, because they are
skin-tight.
- For many years, American consumers _______________ grapes,
to support the migrant farm workers in California.
- The word "_______________" is to British English
what the word "cop" is to American English.
- Some pop singers have the reputation for being real
_______________ offstage.
Answers
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