# Who wants to be a noun? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 5, 2000, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026 "2000-04-05T15:27:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/41 "2000-04-06T07:27:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by dtilque: > \*\* Fuchsia (although it’s probably spelled your way more often than the official way…) > \*\* ## After posting, I realized there was an easy way of seeing what was the most common spelling. AltaVista had just under 50,000 hits for fuchsia and just under 10,000 hits for fuschia. So call it a 5:1 ratio for the correct spelling. On other search engines, the ratio was worse, less than 4:1 on both Yahoo and NorthernLight. That’s a very high misspelling rate. Dan Tilque ---
**Author:** ![Dalou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Dalou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dalou)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/42 "2000-04-06T08:13:00Z")
“Hey, Beavis” seems to be an oft-hurled insult among some, um, people’s kids I know. Wasn’t it one Mr. Crapper who invented the toilet? * * * I’m finished having kids. The next diaper I want in my life is to be my own! ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/43 "2000-04-06T10:56:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Sassy: > **slang term I heard - calling someone a Monet… because they look good from a distance, but up close they are a little dotty. 😃** Monet - non. Seurat - oui. * * * All I wanna do is to thank you, even though I don’t know who you are… ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/44 "2000-04-06T13:11:00Z")
Wow! Once again, I am stunned by the knowledge of the Teeming Millions (especially aseymayo’s two show-biz related contributions!). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/45 "2000-04-06T13:54:00Z")
Ursa Major said: > [@](#): > > Who’d of thought 2000 years ago that the term “caesarian” would come to refer to a surgical procedure? Well, actually, the name of the procedure has nothing to do with fair Dictator-For-Life Julius Caesar. ‘Caesarian’ is actually descended from the Latin ‘caedare’, meaning ‘to cut’. Any similiarity between that and Julius’ last name is just coincidence- Caesar was unlikely ‘from his mother’s womb untimely ripped’, mostly evidenced by how long his mother survived after his birth (most ancient C-sections didn’t go all that well for the mother). As long as we’re going with fictional characters, how about a “Dagwood” (any sandwich piled so high as to be nearly uneatable)? * * * JMCJ Give to Radiskull! ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/46 "2000-04-06T21:05:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by dtilque: > \*\* Fuchsia (although it’s probably spelled your way more often than the official way…) > > \*\* Argh, my typo! :o :o I know damn well that it starts out the same way as the person’s name - that’s why I **gave the name**. :o :o What’s that law that says a post to point out a spelling error will contain a spelling error? Around 1979, when Dick Cavett was on PBS, Walter Matthau was a guest. He worked with Glenda Jackson on the 1978 movie _House Calls_. Apparently they’re both good spellers, and Jackson challenged him to spell the word in question. On Cavett’s show as aired, Matthau recounted his response, saying, “So I started, F-U-C-K…” Cavett managed to keep a straight faces. * * * …this is another Moebius sig…b!s sn!qaoW jay+oue s! s!y+… (adaptation of a WallyM7Sig™ a la quadell) For business reasons, I must preserve the outward signs of sanity. - Mark Twain ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/47 "2000-04-06T21:33:00Z")
Henry Tesla Coulomb Angstrom My favourite is a British one,the **Archer** ,which refers to £2000 ,the amount Geoffrey Archer tried to pay off a prostitute with. eg How much is that car? An Archer to you sir. ---
**Author:** ![TripleAnt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@TripleAnt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TripleAnt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/48 "2000-04-08T00:38:00Z")
I had a history teacher once tell our class about a Russian official during the cold war named Malatov and he said that was where the term Malatov cocktail came from. * * * “I have a lot of good ideas, problem is most of them suck.” -George Carlin ---
**Author:** ![Kepi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kepi/32/7251_2.png) [@Kepi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kepi)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/49 "2000-04-07T14:56:00Z")
How about McCarthyism? Sassy said: > [@](#): > > slang term I heard - calling someone a Monet… because they look good from a distance, but up close they are a little dotty. I heard this just last night while watching _Clueless_ on HBO. Alicia Silverstone’s character says that a particular girl is “a Monet, because she looks OK from far away, but up close, she’s a big ol’ mess.” ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/50 "2000-04-08T05:20:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by TripleAnt: > \*\*I had a history teacher once tell our class about a Russian official during the cold war named Malatov and he said that was where the term Malatov cocktail came from. > \*\* Yes, the Molotov cocktail is named after the Soviet foreign minister of the era. The thing is, I’ve heard two completely different etymologies of it. The anti-Molotov explanation is that the while the Soviets were bombing hell out of the Finns, Molotov claimed publicly that they were just dropping bread to Finland’s starving masses. The Finns called the bombing “Molotov’s breadbaskets” as a sort of stoic joke. So when they needed a quick anti-tank weapon, made out of a liquor bottle, they extended the gastronomic metaphor and called them Molotov cocktails. The pro-Molotov explanation has to do with the Spanish civil war, in which the Soviets sided with the Republic. I don’t know the specifics of this story, but I think it was basically that while the Soviets provided the Loyalists with lots of weapons, the Loyalists still had to make do with homemade gasoline bombs, which they named in honor of the fella who kept supplies coming to the Madrid government. A third explanation, that Molotov liked to drink gasoline, has been submitted by no one. ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/51 "2000-04-08T01:10:00Z")
Thomas Crapper did not invent the toilet, per se, but developed the valve for flushing that is still in use today. From the Hendrickson book mentioned above: Pyrrhic victory–after King “one more such victory and we are lost” Pyrrhus. Salmonella–named after a Dr Salmon. Raglan–after Lord Raglan whose arm was amputated on the battlefield and later designed his overcoat sleeves accordingly. Get this: the monkey wrench (spanner), named after a guy name Moncke. And let’s not forget: Onanism ## Your brain-in-a-jar, Myron Imbibo, ergo sum. ---
**Author:** ![larry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@larry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/larry)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/52 "2000-04-08T01:18:00Z")
If you want your name to become history, try betrayal. We all know about “Benedict Arnold” and check out a guy named “Quisling” from Finland in the 1940’s ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/53 "2000-04-08T02:21:00Z")
So, althought he didn’t invent the toilet, Crapper invented the flapper? How consonant… ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/54 "2000-04-08T03:53:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Farrad The farad was named after Michael Faraday, the British chemist. Also, nobody has yet mentioned Alessandro Volta. ---
**Author:** ![ThisYearsGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@ThisYearsGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisYearsGirl)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/55 "2000-04-08T04:01:00Z")
## I dunno how true this is because I read it as the fun fact in a Far Side calender, but Silhoutte was the same of a French contoller general (or other high-ranking postition), but only lasted a few months, and his name became a synonym for “shadow.” “I need the biggest seed bell you have. . . no, that’s too big.”–Hans Moleman ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/56 "2000-04-08T04:44:00Z")
_Would_ ‘McCarthyism’ qualify as an eponym? The ‘ism’ at the end indicates to me that the term is an adjective, meaning “Acting like McCarthy”, which seems to fall short of what an eponym should be. Otherwise, we could include such things as ‘Reagan Democrats’. Am I right, or (as usual) off in my own plane of existence? * * * JMCJ Give to Radiskull! ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/57 "2000-04-08T05:49:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I had a history teacher once tell our class about a Russian official during the cold war named Malatov and he said that was where the term Malatov cocktail came from. Since I don’t have a real eponym to contribute, I’ll throw in a funny story. ## In a high school physics class, one of my fellow students asked about the word ‘dipole.’ The teacher, who knew biology well but had never taken physics in college, described a 19th century German scientist named Gustav Dipole. Those of us who knew where the word came from let him get most of the way through making up his story before we started laughing ourselve sick. “If you prick me, do I not…leak?” --Lt. Commander Data ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/58 "2000-04-08T06:49:00Z")
A web site with a number of eponyms is [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words16.html](http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words16.html) It’s not an attempt to be a complete list of all English eponyms, but it does have some interesting ones not mentioned in this thread. * * * Dan Tilque ---
**Author:** ![mazirian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@mazirian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazirian)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/59 "2000-04-09T05:39:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by larry: > \*\*If you want your name to become > > history, try betrayal. > > We all know about “Benedict Arnold” > > and check out a guy named “Quisling” > > from Finland in the 1940’s\*\* Yes, do check out Vidkun Quisling. You’ll notice he was Norwegian, not Finnish. Putz. * * * _For once you must try to face the facts: Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts._ ---
**Author:** ![larry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/47e85d/32.png) [@larry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/larry)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026/60 "2000-04-08T22:20:00Z")
[QUOTE] Originally posted by mazirian: \*\* Yes, do check out Vidkun Quisling. You’ll notice he was Norwegian, not Finnish. Putz. oops, sorry, I wanted to post his first name, but when I looked it up in “Notable Finlanders”, I couldn’t find it. Now I know why. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-wants-to-be-a-noun/10026.md?page=4)