Challenge: Words derived from people or characters
Can you think of a word in English or Spanish that is derived from a person or fictional character?
-The word must be found in a reputable dictionary.
- Include the definition and identify the person or character who inspired the word.
- Include image of person if possible. (I'll try below.)
For example:
cantinflear - hablar de forma disparatada e incongruente y sin decir nada (Cuba y Mex.); speak in a crazy and incongrous manner, making no sense.
Inspired by Cantinflas, Mexican comedian and film actor.
46 Answers
Quixotic Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Foolishly impractical and romantic.
Orwellian - George Orwell
futuristic totalitarian state
Yogiisms
Lawrence Peter "Yogi' Berra
something said that wouldn't have been said if you thought about it before you said it
"Nobody goes there anymore because it is too crowded."
"80 percent of the balls that don't reach the hole, don't go in."
Pasteurization - Louis Pasteur
process of heating a food, usually liquid, to a specific temperature for a definite length of time, and then cooling it immediately.
Machiavellian - Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct
Victorian
A person belonging to or exhibiting characteristics typical of the Victorian period.
Queen Victoria == queen of England 1837 - 1901
Freudian - Sigmund Freud
being in accordance with the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud
SPOONERISM
A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched (see metathesis). It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency. While spoonerisms are commonly heard as slips of the tongue resulting from unintentionally getting one's words in a tangle, they can also be used intentionally as a play on words.
Here are some examples:
"Three cheers for our queer old dean!" (dear old queen, referring to Queen Victoria)
"Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?" (customary to kiss)
"The Lord is a shoving leopard." (a loving shepherd)
"A blushing crow." (crushing blow)
"A well-boiled icicle" (well-oiled bicycle)
"You were fighting a liar in the quadrangle." (lighting a fire)
"Is the bean dizzy?" (dean busy)
"Someone is occupewing my pie. Please sew me to another sheet." (occupying my pew...show me to another seat)
"You have hissed all my mystery lectures. You have tasted a whole worm. Please leave Oxford on the next town drain." (missed...history, wasted...term, down train)
Gerrymander (verb): after former Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry.
To divide a geographic area into voting districts in elections, in order to give unfair advantage to one party.
Lutheran - Martin Luther
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a 16th century German reformer
Platonic love
el amor platónico
From Wikipedia:
Platonic love is a chaste and strong type of love that is non-sexual. The term "platonic love" may also be referred as a secret love or an unrequited love. The term amor platonicus was coined as early as the 15th century by the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino. Platonic love in this original sense of the term is examined in Plato's dialogue the Symposium, which has as its topic the subject of love or Eros generally. Of particular importance there are the ideas attributed to the prophetess Diotima, which present love as a means of ascent to contemplation of the Divine. For Diotima, and for Plato generally, the most correct use of love of other human beings is to direct one's mind to love of Divinity. In short, with genuine Platonic love, the beautiful or lovely other person inspires the mind and the soul and directs one's attention to spiritual things. One proceeds from recognition of another's beauty to appreciation of Beauty as it exists apart from any individual, to consideration of Divinity, the source of Beauty, to love of Divinity. The spiritual ideas of Platonic love – as well as the fundamental spiritual emphasis of all of Plato's writings – have been de-emphasized over the last two centuries.
Atlas - Mapa del Mundo
A bound collection of maps often including illustrations, informative tables, or textual matter.
From Atlas, one of the primordial Titans in Greek mythology
America ~ los continentes del hemisferio occidental ~ the continents of the western hemisphere
americano ~ una persona que vive en los americas o es de america
~ a person who lives in the americas or is from America
Llamado así por Américo Vespucio (1454-1512), un comerciante y cartógrafo italiano que señaló a algunos de los primeros mapas de las Américas.
Named for Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), an Italian merchant and cartographer who drew some of the first maps of the Americas.
Arturiano ~ Arthurian
An Arthurian legend is one which recounts the adventures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
Una leyenda arturiana es la que narra las aventuras del Rey Arturo y sus Caballeros de la Mesa Redonda.
cristiano= Del cristianismo o relativo a la religión
