Eponymous: (of a person) giving their name to something.
“the eponymous hero of the novel”
synonyms: identifying, after whom/which something is named, designative, appellative, denominative.
I suppose it’s no surprise to anyone that writers love words. For some reason, the word “eponymous” popped into my head this morning. I liked the way it sounded as it bounced around in my brain, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what it meant, if I ever knew. So I looked it up (well, full disclosure, I let my Word progarm look it up). And now I know.
If you’ve read Call Me Lisa, you’ll remember she loves words and tries to expand her vocabulary by learning and using a new word every day. Here is an excerpt:
“…. I’ve always loved words, especially big ones with lots of syllables, and I make a point of learning a new one every day. If you want to do this, all you have to do is find a word you don’t know the meaning of, look it up, and then use it in a sentence as soon as possible. If you go online to Mirriam–Webster, you can sign up for their Word of the Day email. It’s cool because it also explains what the word means. This is important! I can’t stress this enough! If you use a word incorrectly you will not only look like an idiot but it won’t count toward your New Word Every Day totals. You can keep track as I do on a little calendar, or come up with your own system like maybe a computer spreadsheet.
It goes without saying The New Word Every Day total is on the honour system. If you cheat, you’re only cheating yourself. It does make for some strange looks, though, should you come out with a sentence like: “Polydactylism is quite common in cats and not as rare in humans as you might think” out of the blue. Sometimes even if you wait all day, there isn’t a suitable lead-in even if you try and start a conversation by saying something like: “Did you know quite a few people are born with extra fingers and toes?” If no one says anything and you need it for your Word of The Day, you just have to go ahead and spit it out. So it’s important to take care when choosing the word. Avoid words that haven’t been used by anyone for decades, or that are too specific such as polydactylism.”
Eponymous may be as hopeless as polydactylism as far as opportunities to use it in a sentence. Perhaps I should have taken the eponymous hero of Call Me Lisa’s advice myself!