Monday, January 3, 2011

"Only three men in history have been immortalised by having their names enter the English language as verbs..."

"The first was Irishman, Captain Boycott, whose name entered the language in the 1860s. Another was Louis Pasteur..."

Banting.  A verb.

10 comments:

  1. Ha ha - good one. Come to think of it, Ivan M. Mortal also got his name immortalised by having his name enter the English language as a verb: Immortalise.

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  2. And don't forget Myrtle, of "myrtelize."

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  3. to guillotine
    to bowdlerize
    to diesel (what a gasoline motor does when it shouldn't)

    wv = lexproph (you're married to one)

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  4. I beg of you - don't myrtelize me.

    Thanks, JAL and chicklit!

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  5. Found another: gibberish. Thought to have originated with 8th-century Islamic alchemist, Jabir ibn Hayyan. The term "gibberish" referred to the incomprehensible technical jargon often used by Jabir and other alchemists who followed. link.

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