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A year ago today, Garrison Keillor noted on his public radio vignette, "The Writer's Almanac," that
It's the birthday of Thomas Bowdler, born in Ashley, Somerset, England (1754). He wrote a censored version of Shakespeare's plays called The Family Shakespeare because he thought that the Bard's sexual humor was inappropriate for women and children. He said that he "endeavored to remove every thing that could give just offence to the religious and virtuous mind." And we remember him today in the verb bowdlerize, which was named for him.
I can tell you this: Trying to bowdlerize Daily Kos would be a full time job. Regardless, I have always been interested in words and their etymology. Words that have their origins in people's names are particularly fascinating. These words even have a name of their own, eponym, which, unfortunately, does not trace its origins from anyone's name, but rather from the Greek eponymous, comprised of the prefix epi- meaning "attached to" and onyma meaning "name."
Some eponyms spring quickly to mind: There's quisling, defined as "traitor" and named for the Norwegian Nazi-collaborator Vidkun Quisling; guillotine, namesake of Joseph Guillotin, a French physician who proposed its use in 1789 as more humane than hanging; and sandwich, the legacy of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (right), who, based on looks, was apparently separated at birth from George Washington. Other favorites include bloomers, named for Amelia Bloomer, an American social reformer who advocated wearing the concealing Victorian unmentionables; boycott, so labeled for Charles C. Boycott, an English land agent in County Mayo, Ireland, who was ostracized in 1880 for refusing to reduce rents; and leotard, which gained its moniker from Jules Léotard, a 19th-century French aerial gymnast -- and icon of superheroes ever after.
One fascinating eponym is chauvinism. Allegedly, the word is named for Nicolas Chauvin, a soldier under Napoleon Bonaparte. Legend says that Chauvin was wounded 17 times and became horribly disfigured in the Napoleonic Wars, yet remained unwaveringly devoted to The Little Corporal. Chauvinism originally meant "excessive patriotic fervor," and the term became an insult when Bonapartists fell from favor. The problem is, according to Wiki, "Historical research has not identified any biographical details of a real Nicolas Chauvin." Some claim he was at the last stand of Napoleon's Old Guard and shouted, "The Old Guard dies but does not surrender!" In reality the speaker was Old Guard commander Pierre Cambronne, who in answer to a call for surrender, yelled, "Merde!"
Today, chauvinism is most often associated with male chauvinism but has a more general meaning of "an extreme and unreasoning partisanship on behalf of any group to which one belongs, especially when the partisanship includes malice and hatred towards a rival group." Ergo, Republicans are merde chauvinists in more ways than one.
Speaking of merde, one familiar word whose origin is popularly misconceived is crap. The conventional wisdom is that the word derives from the name of Thomas Crapper (left), a British plumber who helped popularize (but did not invent) the flush toilet. Instead, the word derives from the Dutch krappen, which has its roots in the Latin word crappa,which means "chaff," or waste material. A serendipitous aside is that Crapper did invent the ballcock, a funny-sounding word if ever there was one, but, alas, not an eponym.
More recent eponyms include adjectives such as Darwinian, defined in a social sense as "being a competitive environment or situation in which only the fittest persons or organizations prosper"; Churchillian, connoting both "oratorically gifted" and "bulldog tough"; and Nixonian, which signifies "extreme secretiveness or corruption." Last but not least is the noun, Bushism, which is defined as "unconventional words, phrases, pronunciations, malapropisms, and semantic or linguistic errors" -- like "misunderestimate" or "strategery." (Note that the word malapropism, like Bushism, is named for a person. Fortunately, Mrs. Malaprop is a fictional character. Unfortunately, Dubya is not.) All of these recent additions still retain their capital letters, but someday they may become so common that the caps will be dropped.
Fame may be fleeting, but an eponym is forever. Somehow, I doubt that Dragon5616 will ever become an eponym, but Kos (right) has already made it in the form of Kossack. And mousetits, a corruption of Moulitsas, was first derived by an overwrought wingnut in Kos's Saturday hate mail-apalooza (11/14/09). It has entered the lexicon here at the Great Orange Beyond. Someday, we might see Kossian used to describe an innovative shit-stirrer entrepreneur who rides a bicycle.
Not only that, we could coin a Daily Kos verb, to blade, to describe being called out by site moderator Meteor Blades; as in, "He got bladed for calling BWD an Obamabot." Another DK user that could morph into a verb is Fishgrease. For example, one might describe excoriation of a corporation by saying, "DarkSyde fishgreased BP on the front page the other day."
Noun and adjective possibilities abound as well. An expert on Congress who could also cast out demons might be referred to as a KagroXorcist, while a top comment could simply be a Dallasdoc ("Wow, I had a Dallasdoc in Top Mojo today!"). Perhaps someone will describe a witty and warm person as BiPMesque, a snarky wag as Lieberious, or an outraged DFH as going OPOListic. Hey, it could happen.
Well, I'm not stupid enough to end this diary without a couple of pootie pics. Although I am not sure that constructions like Adam's apple or Lou Gehrig's disease are really eponyms, Wiki lists hundreds of them as such. They are eponymous, certainly, but I hesitate to call them eponyms proper since they're not exactly words. Nevertheless, a wild cat indigenous to Argentina called Geoffroy's Cat (left) is named after the 19th century French zoologist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. They're pretty cute kittens, too (right). In the 1970s, these wild cats were originally bred with domestic shorthairs and bengals for leukemia research. Only 70 or so of them are registered nowadays. Called the "Rolls Royce" of exotic cats, this breed is known as Safari Cat. I would think LOLCATS could have some rollicking good fun with that name. I can see pooties in pith helmets--with woozles as bearers.
But I digress. I'll leave you with one final eponym, Yogiism, named after Hall of Fame New York Yankees catcher Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra. Yogiisms are somewhat akin to Bushisms, except Yogiisms are funny and wise, whereas Bushisms are funny and stupid. As Yogi once explained:
I really didn't say everything I said.
Actually, I think Yogi might have stolen that one from Bush Paul Bachmann Kirk Barton Republicans.
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Notes:
+ Some source material for this diary came from this site.
+ All pictures, except Kos (which I stole and cropped from the FP), are from Wikipedia.
+ Check out a couple of excellent past DKos dairies on eponyms: Purple Priestess' comprehensive work, The Mad Logophile: Eponyms, from 4/12/09, and grumpynerd's The Word Sommelier's Word of the Week 9/5/08, which includes an examination of the eponym McCan't maverick.
+ This diary is my first for Top Comments. I am honored to be here and offer my thanks to the whole crew and especially to sardonyx, BeninSC, and brillig.
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I'm sure you Kossacks can think of more eponyms; feel free to add yours in the comments.
Which reminds me: Here are today's favorite comments. Thanks to those who contributed by sending in these gems to the Top Comments mailbox, all in advance of the 9:30pm Eastern Time deadline. The address of our mailbox for Top Comments submissions remains:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
(change " AT " to "@" and " DOT " to ".")
Anyone can send great comments to our address. Be sure to include the direct link to a comment—the URL—which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time; we need that to find your choice. Always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that, too.
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TOP COMMENTS
From carolita:
KS Rose makes a powerful argument against raising the retirement age in slinkerwink's diary.
From Eddie C:
Remember the last CEOs in the White House? by xaxnar, I'll Echo That! Finish Fiorina Off Already! by VirginiaBlue and Why hasn't FailedCEO=BadSenator.com by borregopass are three of many excellent comments in my Finish Fiorina Off Already diary.
More kudos for Cali Scribe's "Failorina", delmardougster's Don't Carlyfiornicate California! and FoundingFatherDAR for mentioning a place not to shop. (Some nice new eponyms there, Eddie C.)
And happymisanthropy has an important late entry called Diary is incomplete without. The linked map shows Fiorina's lasting influence.
From liberalis:
I nominate this fine play on words by JWinIL14 from the "OPOListic" diary
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From juslikagrzly:
Love love love this response from Jacques to my diary about being deaf in my left ear!
From teacherken:
There were many wonderful comments in my diary today.
Let me just note a couple:
blueoasis offered this about the arts.
luckylizard reminds us that "Great writing stands on its own."
kpbuick talked about using the diary in teaching.
In the comment "Harper Lee told her story," shaharazade offers a discussion of how story telling and visual art relate.
And be sure to read The Independent Sheep's
wonderful "Speaking as an artist . . ." comment.
From BeninSC:
This comment from 4kedtongue is out of recommendability (and was before I found it, too), but is still worth reading, in my opinion. Thank you, 4kedtongue.
This comment by Eddie C shows his talent for political insight and humor extends well beyond his diaries!
From your humble diarist:
Can you spot the eponyms in this comment? A Citizen had a reminder about religion and literalism in DavidsonLoehr's diary The New Sunrise — and Twilight — of Religious Stories
blue in NC makes a great point about unemployment insurance, including "ayn" eponym, in bonddad's rebuttal diary, Leading Indicators Are Not "Crashing".
Also in bonddad's diary, marabout40 makes a meta comment using the eponym Pollyanna, named for the sunnily optimistic heroine of the 1913 book by Eleanor H. Porter.
In teacherken's diary, To kill a mockingbird is a sin . . ., southdem employs the eponym Jim Crow in an accurate epigram.
I'm including this World Cup comment from Mr Stagger Lee for his creative basketball commentator eponym in 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Live Thread: Spain vs The Netherlands by sluggahjells.
OK, so this one doesn't contain an eponym, but JaxDem has two remarkable photos that kick off an open thread about barns--yes, barns. And, 35 comments later, JWinIL14 (who was on a roll today) provides the punch line.
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Courtesy of BeninSC, here is today's
TOP MOJO
Top mojo, excluding the tip jars and usual high mojo comments:
1 Define "growth" by Jerome a Paris - 177
2 The "Left". by RonV - 118
3 Getting people jobs is the best social security by FishOutofWater - 115
4 while it's true by Jerome a Paris - 95
5 The only reason SS is on the agenda by Dallasdoc - 90
6 The Only Goalpost That Matters... by Ruff Limblog - 86
7 Democrats will have to be put on notice by Dallasdoc - 77
8 We may get shouted down, but that ........... by ThAnswr - 68
9 And we will get up and try again. by NCJim - 68
10 Here you go, MOT by dkmich - 67
11 huh? by Jerome a Paris - 66
12 We need to all go to the wall on these issues. by blueoasis - 64
13 With the continuing automation and the job ...... by ThAnswr - 63
14 Sekrit clone army reddy for activashun: by feeny - 63
15 magnificent Jerome by nyceve - 62
16 Budgets more than 5 years out are fantasy by FishOutofWater - 59
17 Point out the endless stream by Jim P - 59
18 Stretches are important. by Amber6541 - 58
19 I winz! by Nina - 57
20 Well it's not like we all died and went away... by One Pissed Off Liberal - 54
21 Must respectfully disagree about raising the by Diana in NoVa - 53
22 Brilliant diary... by kerflooey - 53
23 Almost ready to go.... by Texnance - 53
24 What I most hate about the discussion regarding by rontun - 53
25 They really don't want to pay SS back by slinkerwink - 52
26 Sorry, but that is not true. by New Deal democrat - 52
27 LOL, Whoknu! Yep, Sekritarmy Rsistance Is Futile: by leonard145b - 52
28 Turtle Ops.... by Texnance - 50
29 Which is why this has to be ramped up now by slinkerwink - 49
30 And I seem to remember another business failure by Eddie C - 49
31 Never shut up - no matter how much they attack by dkmich - 49
32 The rich want to loot every dime they can by FishOutofWater - 49
33 sekritarmy knows how to conduct itself by Horsefeathers - 49
Top Mojo, everything included (of 15894 comments in the past 24 hours)!
1 All you need is love. by One Pissed Off Liberal - 491
2 Tip Jar by bonddad - 375
3 Tip Jar by slinkerwink - 297
4 Tips for another answer to an honest question by MinistryOfTruth - 292
5 Tip Jar by Eddie C - 243
6 Full disclosure by Jerome a Paris - 211
7 Tip Jar by Ellinorianne - 206
8 I began writing this and it wrote itself by teacherken - 178
9 Define "growth" by Jerome a Paris - 177
10 Tip Jar by WeBetterWinThisTime - 153
11 Tip Jar by Avenging Angel - 134
12 The "Left". by RonV - 118
13 Getting people jobs is the best social security by FishOutofWater - 115
14 Tip Jar by bobswern - 113
15 Tip Jar by Kestrel - 107
16 tips by whoknu - 105
17 while it's true by Jerome a Paris - 95
18 The only reason SS is on the agenda by Dallasdoc - 90
19 The Only Goalpost That Matters... by Ruff Limblog - 86
20 A big thanks, as always, for your support by Gulf Watchers - 83
21 Democrats will have to be put on notice by Dallasdoc - 77
22 TIPS by Trix - 77
23 We may get shouted down, but that ........... by ThAnswr - 68
24 And we will get up and try again. by NCJim - 68
25 Here you go, MOT by dkmich - 67
26 Tip Jar by caseynm - 66
27 huh? by Jerome a Paris - 66
28 Tip Jar by juslikagrzly - 66
29 We need to all go to the wall on these issues. by blueoasis - 64
30 With the continuing automation and the job ...... by ThAnswr - 63
31 Sekrit clone army reddy for activashun: by feeny - 63