verb eponyms

sagehen sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM
Mon Sep 19 16:43:58 UTC 2005


>While driving around today I heard someone on NPR claim that the only verb
>eponyms she could think of without "linguistic decoration", i.e. without
>affixes such as -ize, were "Bork" and "Bobbit".  (She had already mentioned
>"boycott" as an eponym, but perhaps she doesn't think of it as a verb.)
>
>I thought surely there must be more, but could come up with none on my
>own.  An Internet search got me "Fisk", as well as "Fudge" whose status as
>an eponym is dubious.
>
>Interestingly, Bork, Bobbit, Fisk, and Boycott were all victims of the
>action bearing their name.  My approach was to try to think of
>perpetrators, especially in sports, but I could think of none.
>
>Can anyone think of any others?
>
>   Tom Kysilko
~~~~~~~~~
Well, there's "burke" from Wm. Burke of Burke & Hare.  I remember wanting
to use "Burke Bork" as a quick message to Senate committee members
considering the  Bork nomination.  I thought it simply meant /stop/ or
/frustrate/.  I'm glad I refrained; I see its meaning  is actually somewhat
more dire.
I'm sure there are others lurking in odd corners of my mind, but they're
not showing up just now.
A. Murie

~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>   ~@:>



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