THE AMATEUR WORD NERD: Did you know that Lewiston is eponymous?

By Barbara McAllister

Word of the Day: Eponymous
Eponymous refers to something named for a person. It comes from the Greek root onyma, meaning name. “Anonymous,” from the same root, means without name, and “pseudonym” means false name. Donald Trump has an eponymous empire: Trump Hotel, Trump Tower, Trump Casino and Trump University. Henry Ford created an eponymous vehicle. Many towns and cities are eponymously named for their founders, as are many of their streets
Lewiston, according to the city website, is eponymously named after Job Lewis, a Boston merchant. Turner was named for the Rev. Charles Turner. Bowdoin College is eponymously named for James Bowdoin II, a wealthy Boston merchant and the second governor of Massachusetts. Perhaps surprisingly, Greene, Maine, was not named for the color of the surrounding woods, but eponymously after Nathanael Greene, a major general in George Washington’s continental army
Eponyms can become part of our vocabulary, with the origins all but forgotten. Macadam comes from John McAdam, a Scottish engineer who invented the paving material. You might know “sandwich” was named for the Earl of Sandwich who was said to have created a meal he could eat while playing cards, but lesser known ones include leotard, guppy, uzi, saxophone, cardigan, shrapnel, boycott, lynch, pompadour and nicotine, all named for the person that discovered, invented or popularized them.
The word “hippopotamus,: by the way, is also from Greek roots, but different ones that mean “river horse.” While hippopotamus is not eponymous, it is one of the few words to rhyme with it and it’s just fun to say.