Eponyms: Words Named After People and Places

Use etymology to understand words that came from names of people and places.

Not every word comes from a Greek or Latin root. Some come from people and places, and these are called eponyms. A sandwich is named after an English nobleman, the Earl of Sandwich, who, the story goes, wanted food he could eat without leaving a card game. A marathon is named after Marathon in Greece; legend says a messenger ran from there to Athens with news of a victory.

To boycott, refusing to deal with someone as a protest, comes from Charles Boycott, a land agent in Ireland whose neighbors refused to work with him in 1880. A cardigan sweater is named after an earl of Cardigan. The units 'watt' and 'volt' honor the scientists James Watt and Alessandro Volta. Knowing that eponyms exist matters for decoding: when a word does not break into familiar parts, it may come from a name, and a dictionary's etymology note will tell you the story.

• 1An eponym is a word named after a person or place.
• 2Sandwich, marathon, boycott, watt, and volt are eponyms.
• 3If a word will not break into parts, it may come from a name.