Aloha Friends,
Let’s take a look at Eponyms. An Eponym is: A word based on or derived from a person's name.
Here are a couple of interesting ones. All of us make mistakes, at times, in using the right word(s) when expressing ourselves. However these two people made it a habit in their lives. (One of them is a fictional character.)
Malapropism:
A humorous verbal blunder in which one word is replaced by another similar in sound but different in meaning.
Origin: The term derives from a character in Richard Sheridan's play ‘The Rivals’. In that play a character, Mrs. Malaprop, had a funny problem. She would say things that would not make any sense at all but when a similar sounding word was substituted for what she had uttered it would make sense. Wanting to say “the geography of contiguous countries”, she would say the "geometry of contagious countries". She also regretted that her "affluence" over her niece was very small when she wanted to say that she regretted that her “influence” over her niece was very small.
Spoonerism:
The transposition of usually initial sounds of words producing a humorous result.
Origin: W. A. Spooner was an English clergyman noted for many verbal slips. Much like Mrs. Malaprop he would say things which would not make sense initially but would do so immensely when exchanging the initial words.
E.g. “It was a blushing crow” when he actually meant “It was a crushing blow”
"You have hissed the mystery lectures" when he actually meant "You have missed the history lectures"
Do you know of any other Eponyms? If so mention the same in the Comments section
Ciao
