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PEOPLE often become words, without being aware of the fact. And the words they unwittingly create become founts of interesting tales for centuries to come. These words or eponyms have become a part of the vocabulary and language users mostly are not aware of the people behind them. Here’s a peep into these ‘people words’. Roscian as an adjective means ‘of or related to acting’ and comes from Quintus Roscius Gallus, a Roman actor famous for his talent in acting. He was born in slavery but his success on stage won him freedom from the dictator Sulla. He was considered the greatest comic actor and Cicero took elocution lessons from him. Accomplished actors are sometimes called Roscius. The eponym ‘bunyanesque’ carries two connotations; the first is ‘gigantic’ in the context of the legends of fictional hero Paul Bunyan and the second connotation refers to the allegorical style of author John Bunyan. Paul Bunyan was a lumberjack and an American folk hero. The story of Bunyan holds that as an infant, he was so huge that it took a mustering of storks to deliver him. Another example of his strength is the tale that when he dragged his axe behind him, he created the Grand Canyon. The other Bunyan is John Bunyan, a 17-century English preacher famed for his allegorical novel Pilgrim’s Progress. Similarly, the eponym ‘adamite’
carries three meanings. First, adamite refers to a nudist, after the
name of some Christian sects which professed to imitate the first human,
Adam, by not wearing any clothes. After the same Adam, it can refer to a
human being as Adam was the first human. In the third sense, adamite
refers to a mineral (zinc arsenate hydroxide) usually yellow and green
in colour. It is named so after the mineralogist Gilbert Joseph Adam.
Hermeneutics or the science of interpretation is named after Hermes in
Greek mythology, who served as a messenger and herald for other gods,
and who himself was the god of eloquence, commerce, invention, cunning
and theft. Hermes gave birth to the Greek words hermeneutikos (of
interpreting), hermeneuein (to interpret) and hermeneus
(interpreter). |
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