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I have recently come across the word "aptronym", which was explained in the text as "a symbolic or allusive label name". One example given was a contemporary character named Percy whose actions linked him unmistakeably, though not explicitly, with Knight Percival from the Arthurian legends. About "aptronym", though, does anybody know whether it is directly derived from Greek (as are "synonym" and "antonym"), or whether it has been formed by uniting "apt" (since the name is apt for the character it designates) with the "nym" part of the Greek-origin words? -- something like a coinage by analogy... 
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Aptually, tsuwm, I think eu are more apt to remember the former.  But I went to your M-W site and found a neat opposite: "Henry Calamity, an inaptronym, as this man was named the Santa Fe Railroad's "safety man of the month" for March 1969." 'Nother new word, and thanks for the Round Table info., too.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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There's a movie coming out this summer called "The Fast and the Furious" about drag racing on the streets of LA. It stars an actor named Vin Diesel. Is there such a category as "inaptronym"? The movie also stars an actor named Paul Walker.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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old hand
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old hand
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Vin Diesel.I think the Germans and the French should NOT collaborate one wine production! I ain't gonna drink any of this stuff!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Diesels will run on strange things. They probably could run on vodka, but probably not on vin.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Whether the diesel will run on vin is one question, whether you'd get anybody to drink the stuff is an entire nother.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
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I was reminded of this thread while listening to Terry Gross on NPR interview one Michael Pollan (pron. like pollen), author of The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World. I hope he doesn't do book signings - you wouldn't beleaf all the horrible jokes he must hear over and over again - must make him wish he had a pistil handy. OK, I'm done now.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World
i KNEW that had a sue me [read: tsuwmy] ring to it...
Should have known tsuwm and Sparteye would beat me to it, and with better puns, no less.
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