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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--maxwellian This week's theme: eponyms (words coined after people's names). Maxwellian (maks-WEL-i-an) adjective Of or relating to James Clerk Maxwell or his equations and theory in electromagnetism and other fields. [After James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist (1831-1879).] Maxwellian (maks-WEL-i-an) adjective Of or relating to shady business practices, financial tricks, misuse of public funds, etc. In the US we had Ken Lay and friends from Enron; across the pond in the UK, there was Ian Robert Maxwell (1923-1991). Maxwell was a Czechoslovakian-born British publisher who became notorious for misusing his employees' pension funds of some 400 million pounds. He also engaged in dubious transactions between his private companies and a public company to prop them up and boost the share prices. For his resilience to rebound after a castigating government report, he earned the nickname the Bouncing Czech. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Admittedly, the case is complex -- 'potentially Maxwellian' is how one forensic accountant described it." Jim Armitage; Independent Insurance Collapsed Four Years Ago; Evening Standard (London, UK); Feb 4, 2005. X-Bonus You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

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