New eponym

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:36 AM -0400 8/12/09, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>Perhaps the original is "gerrymander"?
>
>Joel


I'll stick with "pander"--

OED, "pander", v. intr.

To act as a pander; to minister to the immoral urges or distasteful
desires of another, or to gratify a person with such desires. Also in
weakened use: to indulge the tastes, whims, or weaknesses of another.

1641 MILTON Of Reformation 81 Excommunication servs for nothing with
them, but to prog, and pandar for fees.

and the now archaic transitive use is even older:

1616 SHAKESPEARE Hamlet (1623) III. iv. 88 Since Frost it selfe, as
actiuely doth burne, As Reason panders Will.

LH

(P.S.  Shakespeare has Pandarus himself guaranteeing his immortality
by eponymy:

1609 SHAKESPEARE Troilus & Cressida III. ii. 198 Pand. If euer you
proue false one, to another since I haue taken such paine to bring
you together let all pittifull goers betweene be cald to the worlds
end after my name, call them all Panders.)



>
>At 8/11/2009 09:20 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>At 5:59 PM -0700 8/11/09, Mark Peters wrote:
>>>Lindsey Graham coined a vivid expression recently, saying, "My
>>>message to my Democratic colleagues is: We made mistakes in Iraq,
>>>let's not Rumsfeld Afghanistan. Let's not do this thing on the
>>>cheap."
>>>(http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/09/ftn/main5227993.shtml)
>>>Political eponyms--like Clintonista, Jeffersonian, Bushism--are
>>>pretty common. I can think of plenty of nouns and adjectives, but
>>>can anyone think of political eponymic verbs that work like
>>>Rumsfeld? I'm doing a column on Rumsfelding this week, and I
>>>appreciate any leads. I just hope I don't Rumsfeld the article. Mark
>>
>>Would "boycott" count?  It certainly has political applications and
>>it's also pretty clearly eponymic.  And of course "pander", although
>>that one had a non-political origin.
>>
>>LH
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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