eponymous
adjective
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What’s in a name? If the name is eponymous, a name is in the name: an eponymous brand, café, river, or ice cream is named for someone or something. And because English is beastly sometimes, the one lending the name to the brand, café, river, or ice cream can also be described as eponymous. This means that if Noah Webster owns a bookstore called “Webster’s Books,” it’s an eponymous bookstore, and Noah himself is the bookstore’s eponymous owner. Most of the time, though, we see eponymous describing a thing named for a person—for example, an eponymous brand named for a designer, or a band’s eponymous album titled only with the band’s name. The related word eponym is less ambiguous: it refers to the one for whom someone or something is named. At our hypothetical “Webster’s Books,” Noah Webster is the bookstore’s eponym. Appropriately enough, the Greek root of both words is onyma, meaning “name.”
Examples of eponymous in a Sentence
Leila Hadley, Give Me the World, (1958) 1999
"Cool Britannia," which goes back to Ben and Jerry's eponymous ice cream in Spring 1996, met its sell-by-date within weeks …
—Harold Perkin, Times Literary Supplement, 18 Dec. 1998
Karen Hubert Allison, the eponymous (if you count middle names) creator of Hubert's, didn't know she was making dining history …
—Peter Kaminsky, New York Times Book Review, 11 May 1997
Matt Grobar, Deadline, 26 Feb. 2025
Maddow, whose eponymous show remains highly rated despite the network's declining viewership, has a seemingly unique position of power at a time when many veteran hosts are on the chopping block.
—Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 26 Feb. 2025
Brunello Cucinelli is the founder, chief executive, and designer of his eponymous global brand, headquartered in Solomeo in Italy’s Umbria region renowned for its cashmere heritage.
—Felicity Carter, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2025
Maranello’s obsession with the 12-cylinder engine goes right back to the marque’s beginning in 1946, when the enterprising Enzo Ferrari ordered the brilliant Gioacchino Colombo to build a power plant for his first eponymous race car.
—Basem Wasef, Robb Report, 25 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for eponymous
Cite this Entry
“Eponymous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eponymous. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
eponymous
adjective
R. O. Brady
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