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Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

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Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#191

Post by zuminator »

mkl wrote: post #125
thih9 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the idea? How are these different from e.g. erlang, elo or shrapnel - all featured on the page?

" Unexpectedly named after people". Erlang seems to be short for for Ericsson Language, Elo is often misspelled ELO as if it stands for something. Shrapnel is less unexpected.

In the case of shrapnel I guess I always assumed it was derived from some World War era Germanic word for metal scrap/shards, so that it's just named after a British dude is pretty unexpected to me.

Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#192

Post by pronik »

msiemens wrote: post #127

A few German companies: - Aldi (supermarket chain), founded by the Albrecht brothers, thus AL brecht DI skont - Adidas, founded by AD olf DAS sler - Mercedes-Benz, named by Emil Jellinek-Mercedes after his daughter Mercedes, initially with Daimler which then merged with Benz - Audi, founded by August Horch. Initially founded as _A. Horch & Cie. Motorwagenwerke Zwickau_, he later lost the rights to the name "Horch". H…

You can certainly argue that Adolf's diminutive has been used for Adidas: ADI DASsler.

Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#193

Post by dmurray »

jodrellblank wrote: post #152

> The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Ballads

And similarly, the Children's Python is a snake that's considered suitable as a pet, named after John George Children.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_python

Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#194

Post by mkl »

thih9 wrote: post #177
mkl wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Unexpectedly named after people". Erlang seems to be short for for Ericsson Language, Elo is often misspelled ELO as if it stands for something. Shrapnel is less unexpected.

Saxophone is just as unexpected, other -phone musical terms, like vibraphone, idiophone, membranophone, come with a prefix unrelated to people. Sadism and masochism - perhaps less unexpected, but no less than shrapnel IMO.

Vibra-, idio-, membrano-, aero-, etc. are existing or obvious prefixes. Sax- is not. All I can think of is Saxon, but saxophones are pretty recent, so that doesn't match.

Sousaphone is another -phone that's pretty obviously named after a person. Less well known but still pretty obvious are rothphone, heckelphone, sarrusophone, sudrophone.

Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#195

Post by mbork_pl »

Here's an interesting example: in the Whoniverse there is this concept of a "deadlock seal", which is kind of a lock which is almost impossible to break (it is (in)famously resistant even to sonic devices, which is a big deal). Apparently, it was named after an Arthur Deadlock (https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Deadlock_seal).

I can only assume this is a deliberate joke of the authors, of course.

Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#196

Post by BerislavLopac »

A few more examples:

King Street in Hammersmith, London, was named after John King, Bishop of London in 17th century. [0]

Neanderthals were named after Joachim Neumann, a 17th century clergyman and composer who Latinised his surname to Neander (both literally meaning "new man"). He particularly loved a certain valley near Düsseldorf, so much in fact that it was renamed "Neandert(h)al" after him. [1]

Sideburns, a once popular style of male facial hair, was named after the Union general Ambrose Burnside. [2]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_King_(bishop_of_London)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neandertal_(valley)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Burnside

Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#197

Post by zuminator »

cc101 wrote: post #2

They forgot about Sir Thomas Crapper.

That's not a real thing! Crap's a very old world, and according to Wikipedia "crapper" was first attested in a roughly modern sense when Sir Crapper was only about 10, well before his overflowing flush to prominence in the plumbing world.

Re: Things unexpectedly named after people (2020)

#199

Post by rob74 »

masklinn wrote: post #181
rob74 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes feel that German founders are too stuck on naming their company after themself, some of them really should have looked for alternatives, e.g. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppelfricke

It’s generally the result of them starting as personal or family businesses, so initially your brand is your name. Then the business grows so large the relationship inverts. It does not have much to do with germany really, it’s common the world over. For example, just from US car brand, you obviously have Ford, but also Olds (Ransom E.), Chevrolet (Louis and Arthur), Buick (David), Chrystler (Walter), Dodge (Horace E…

It's not the lack of English-proofing, it's the connotations that this name has for Germans: "Sepp" is a very common and not really glamourous first name/nickname, and "frickeln" means tinkering or fiddling around with something (usually with the negative sense of tinkering rather than fixing it properly).
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