Eponyms are people who have a word coined after them. Take Amerigo Vespucci,
Italian explorer after whom America was named. The word eponym is also used
to refer to words coined in this manner. The elementary particle boson, for
example, is named after Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.
This week we travel around the world in our quest for eponyms. Our other
stops are Germany, Sweden, Australia, France and England. We pick words
coined after good guys, as well as words named after not-so-good ones.
We feature words derived from people who were mere figments of someone's
imagination and words that have their source in flesh and blood folks.
