Harriet wrote:
Jacqui asked:
(nb. if eponym is for 'named after/derived from' a person, toponym for a place, what is the word for 'things', ideas etc: eg the word 'bolshie' derives from 'Bolshevik')
I'd have thought it was still eponym. The English word comes directly from the Greek eponumos [can't do the Greek characters here], for which my dictionary offers "named after some person or thing". That's derived from epi, which is a preposition meaning various things but chiefly on, at, to; and onuma, an Aeolian dialect form of onoma, meaning name. So it's not quite analogous to toponym, which derives from topos, a place, and onuma, as above, ie two nouns rather than a preposition plus noun.
If you wanted to coin a word analogous to toponym specifically relating to ideas, I suggest ideonym.
'Bolshevik' in turn derives from the Russian word for 'big', so would there be a word for 'named after some attribute', or would this come under 'named after some person or thing'?
Una