Casanova, attributed to Francesco Narichi
1760
Romeo was the ardent young lover in Shakespeare’s (1590s) timeless tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Venetian Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was a real-life womaniser who lived and loved in 1725-98, while Don Juan was a fictional philanderer first written about in a 1630 play by Spanish author Tirso de Molino, The Trickster of Seville.
A Mata Hari is either a beautiful seductive female spy, or a duplicitous woman, derived from Dutch-born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. She was an exotic dancer-courtesan in Paris who used her stage name, then served as a spy for both French and German intelligence during WW1. In 1917, aged 41, she was executed by firing squad in France for being a German spy.
A Florence Nightingale is someone who will come to a sick person’s aid, any time in 24 hours. The actual woman was a British nurse (1820-1910) who became famous for her pioneering nursing work during the Crimean War where she tended to wounded soldiers. This Lady with the Lamp continued to make her rounds at night.
A Mother Theresa is a good person who embodies all that is caring. Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Albania (1910-97), this Catholic nun spent her life to the sick and impoverished in India etc. She founded the Missionaries of Charity congregation in 1950, with hundreds of missions to help people around the globe.
There are words based on peoples’ names that became nouns or verbs. Boycott is the act of refusing to use a product or service, as a form of protest. The term came from Irishman Charles Boycott (1832-97), an agent who refused to give in to land reforms back then.
Many exercise in a fitness regime to improve their shape, and may wear a leotard. This skinny one-piece garment that covers the torso was created and worn by French acrobatic performer Jules Leotard.
Many like soaking in a Jacuzzi. Italian Candido Jacuzzi invented the whirlpool bath in 1949 for his young son who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis.
Or ride on a fairground Ferris Wheel. This owes its origin to American engineer George W Ferris who designed the first one for the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893; it celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New world.
The temperature gauge was devised by two men. The 3 countries in the world that still officially use the imperial system: US, Liberia and Myanmar, use Farenheit, named for Danzig physicist and instrument maker Daniel Gabriel Farenheit (1686-1736). Anders Celsius (1701-44) was a Swedish astronomer and physicist who, in 1742, designed an inverted form of the centigrade temperate scale.
at the bequest of the Directors, Daniel H. Burnham, for the upcoming Chicago fair.
In a 1902 political cartoon in the Washington Post, US President Teddy Roosevelt on a hunting trip was depicted showing compassion towards a captured bear. Inspired by this cartoon, an immigrant in New York created a little stuffed bear cub and placed it in his shop window with the sign Teddy’s Bear. It was very successful.
The Rubik’s cube was invented in 1974 by Hungarian Prof of Architecture, Erno Rubik. He worked at the Dept of Interior Design at Budapest’s Academy of Applied Arts, trying to solve the structural problem of moving the parts independently, without the entire mechanism collapsing. (The puzzle appeared later).
Now some surnames used as words in the Oxford English Dictionary. The phrase Hobson’s choice was first noted in 1660, referring to Tobias Hobson (1545-1637), a puritan mayor of Cambridge and horse-hirer. He earned a national reputation by offering customers either the horse nearest the stable door ..or nothing.
Bowdlerise is to expurgate words or passages considered indelicate or indecent and refers to the moral Dr Thomas Bowdler. In 1818 he published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare’s plays. Bloomers, originally a combination of skirt & trousers, was named for an American woman, Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818-94), who started a revolution in women’s clothing when she wore them. It’s common for the views and styles of writers and politicians to be used, in adjectives & nouns eg Machiavellian (1566), Dickensian (1881) and Thatcherite (1976) and words from fictional surnames eg Dickens’ Scrooge (1940).
Science and invention were great sources of new words, or products. Newtonian, describing the theories of Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was recorded by 1676. Volt and Ampere were named after two physicists, Italian Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) and French André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836). The original design of the hansom cab was patented by Joseph Hansom in 1834. In Mackintosh the product name has become generalised to denote a rainproof coat, whether made of the rubberised cloth patented by Charles Macintosh in 1823 or not. Pasteurisation (1890) is the method of sterilising liquids invented by the French chemist, Louis Pasteur (1822-95). Hoover has long been used in British countries to refer to any make of vacuum cleaner, not exclusively the machine patented by William H Hoover in 1927. Tommy-gun (1929), originally a nickname for the John Thompson sub-machine-gun, is now used for any make of the weapon. NB brand names are normally excluded from the OED if they do not have generic uses.
There are words based on peoples’ names that became nouns or verbs. Boycott is the act of refusing to use a product or service, as a form of protest. The term came from Irishman Charles Boycott (1832-97), an agent who refused to give in to land reforms back then.
The Rubik’s cube was invented in 1974 by Hungarian Prof of Architecture, Erno Rubik. He worked at the Dept of Interior Design at Budapest’s Academy of Applied Arts, trying to solve the structural problem of moving the parts independently, without the entire mechanism collapsing. (The puzzle appeared later).
Now some surnames used as words in the Oxford English Dictionary. The phrase Hobson’s choice was first noted in 1660, referring to Tobias Hobson (1545-1637), a puritan mayor of Cambridge and horse-hirer. He earned a national reputation by offering customers either the horse nearest the stable door ..or nothing.
Bowdlerise is to expurgate words or passages considered indelicate or indecent and refers to the moral Dr Thomas Bowdler. In 1818 he published an expurgated edition of Shakespeare’s plays. Bloomers, originally a combination of skirt & trousers, was named for an American woman, Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818-94), who started a revolution in women’s clothing when she wore them. It’s common for the views and styles of writers and politicians to be used, in adjectives & nouns eg Machiavellian (1566), Dickensian (1881) and Thatcherite (1976) and words from fictional surnames eg Dickens’ Scrooge (1940).
Science and invention were great sources of new words, or products. Newtonian, describing the theories of Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was recorded by 1676. Volt and Ampere were named after two physicists, Italian Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) and French André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836). The original design of the hansom cab was patented by Joseph Hansom in 1834. In Mackintosh the product name has become generalised to denote a rainproof coat, whether made of the rubberised cloth patented by Charles Macintosh in 1823 or not. Pasteurisation (1890) is the method of sterilising liquids invented by the French chemist, Louis Pasteur (1822-95). Hoover has long been used in British countries to refer to any make of vacuum cleaner, not exclusively the machine patented by William H Hoover in 1927. Tommy-gun (1929), originally a nickname for the John Thompson sub-machine-gun, is now used for any make of the weapon. NB brand names are normally excluded from the OED if they do not have generic uses.
There are words based on peoples’ names that became nouns or verbs. Boycott is the act of refusing to use a product or service, as a form of protest. The term came from Irishman Charles Boycott (1832-97), an agent who refused to give in to land reforms back then.
Hoover showroom in the late 1920s.
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