eponym

eponym
—eponymic, adj.
/ep"euh nim/, n.
1. a person, real or imaginary, from whom something, as a tribe, nation, or place, takes or is said to take its name: Brut, the supposed grandson of Aeneas, is the eponym of the Britons.
2. a word based on or derived from a person's name.
3. any ancient official whose name was used to designate his year of office.
[1840-50; back formation from EPONYMOUS]

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      one for whom or which something is or is believed to be named. The word can refer, for example, to the usually mythical ancestor or totem animal or object that a social group (such as a tribe) holds to be the origin of its name. In its most familiar use, eponym denotes a person for whom a place or thing is named, as in describing James Monroe as the eponym of Monrovia, Liberia. The derivative adjective is eponymous. An eponymous hero of a work of literature is one whose name is the title of the work, such as Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey, Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, and John Fowles's Daniel Martin.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Eponym — („Namen gebend“, von griech. ἐπώνυμος) steht für: in der Altertumswissenschaft eine mythische Gestalt (oder eine historische Person), von deren Name der Name eines Volkes, einer Stadt, einer Menschengruppe oder eines geographischen Objektes… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Eponym — Ep o*nym, Eponyme Ep o*nyme, n. [Cf. F. [ e]ponyme. See {Eponymous}.] 1. The hypothetical individual who is assumed as the person from whom any race, city, etc., took its name; as, Hellen is an eponym of the Hellenes. [1913 Webster] 2. A name, as …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • eponym — eponym, eponymous 1. An eponym is a person after whom something is named, such as a building, an institution, an organization, a machine, a product, or a process. Examples include: Alzheimer s disease, from Alois Alzheimer, 1864–1915, German… …   Modern English usage

  • eponym — [ep′ə nim΄] n. [< Gr epōnymos, eponymous < epi , upon + onyma, NAME] 1. a real or mythical person from whose name the name of a nation, institution, etc. is derived [William Penn is the eponym of Pennsylvania] 2. a person whose name has… …   English World dictionary

  • eponym — eponym. См. эпоним. (Источник: «Англо русский толковый словарь генетических терминов». Арефьев В.А., Лисовенко Л.А., Москва: Изд во ВНИРО, 1995 г.) …   Молекулярная биология и генетика. Толковый словарь.

  • Eponym — Eponȳm (Eponўmos, grch.), Namen gebend; bei den alten Griechen Bezeichnung der jährlich wechselnden höchsten Staatsbehörde, nach welcher das Jahr genannt wurde, so in Athen des ersten Archon, in Sparta des ersten Ephoros, in Theben des ersten… …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • eponym — index call (title) Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • eponym — one whose name becomes that of a place, a people, an era, an institution, etc., 1846, from Gk. eponymos given as a name, giving one s name to something, from epi “upon” (see EPI (Cf. epi )) + onyma, Aeolic dial. variant of onoma name (see… …   Etymology dictionary

  • eponym — ► NOUN 1) a word or name derived from the name of a person. 2) a person after whom a discovery, invention, place, etc. is named …   English terms dictionary

  • Eponym — An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, which has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item. An eponymous person is the person referred to by the eponym. In… …   Wikipedia

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