Names
P2052 at AOL.COM
P2052 at AOL.COM
Fri Dec 17 18:48:25 UTC 1999
The closest term I can think of is the word eponym? According to Webster's
Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, the term refers
to "a person, real or imaginary, from whom something, as a tribe, nation, or
place, takes or is said to take its name." Additionally, this work defines Ma
c, along with its variants, "Mc," M'-," and "M'-, as "a prefix found in many
family names of Irish or Scottish Gaelic orign," . . . meaning "son of."
The term eponym, then, could very well have been used in a narrorer or
literal sense to refer to the actual offspring of ___, as in McDonald's
meaning the "son or offspring," of Donald.
PAT
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