Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-29
THINGS CALLED AFTER MEN
NAMES GET INTO LANGUAGE
TO EXPRESS IDEAS.
New Word "Quiggery"-Origin Of
Boycott" Gerrymander and
Others.
rom the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

From the St. Louis Globe Democrat.
Mems names occasionally make them
famous Of one takes the natural and fiat
tering view of it, by getting into the Ian
guage to express new things or methods;
but, in the end the name sinks to the
lgnomy of ''lower-case" initial. and the
man who bore the patronymic is forgot
ten. All but the members of his own
tribe lose sight of the name as man
name. and in a few generations the bub-
BILE fame is pricked or dries up.
Who nowadays thinks of boycott" as
anything but what it is. or recalls Capt,
Boycott, who involuntarily introduced
the game into Ireland and the word into
the language? There is that picturesque
word maverick" everywhere used in the
cow country. Whether the word came
from the name of the Col Maverick who
once lived in St. Louis and built the man
sion that Washington University for a
time used as a clubhouse, and whether
the gentleman, whichever one he was.
kept his cattle on an island off the Texas
coast or in some other place that was so
isolated that he thought they needed no
brandlng-Whatever the truth is among
the various disputed statements, it seems
pretty clear that mo brand was Mr.
Mavericks brand. He could claim any
uiioi alideu dlliildl, anu ulu. l nat II pos
sessed no mark was prima facie evidence
of his ownership. But after a while the
unmarked steers were sold at the round
up and all the other owners divided the
proceeds of the sale of the mavericks.
The claim of ownership in all unbranded
cattle became untcnable.
Fame of Gerry.
Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts was
forced to take the discredit of word that
| is known 20 millions who know not his
name nor his history. When certain legis-
lative districts We're manipulated as to
lines of delimitation some one remarked
that one of them looked like salaman-
der, and the rejoinder was that it looked
more like 'gerrymander" The thing
for which the word stands could hardly
have been so new as all that. If it was
then the thought should give us pause,
Tor we nave since become adopts in the
art of gerrymandering d district or a
ward for political advantage. When a
Congress district is already hopelessly
wrong-that is, strongly dominated by the
other party-why, throw into it some ad-
Jacent. territory that is not of the same
political persuasion, if you can in this
way relieve a doubtful district of all cause
| for doubt. Give us fair advantage"
Over in England a gentleman who
bore the poetic surname Banting in
troduced and populariZed a method of
| reducing the superfluous adipose of the
human organism. What more natural
they were painting" to lessen their
weight? And so the verb Ito bant' is
used by many who give no poorest
shred of praise to the man who de-
| vised the plan Probably it will ever
| be so until we reach the land
Where the Rudyards cease from i1ipjing
And tile weary are at rest.
"Eganize."
When a word like "Eganize.' which
| was jocularly put forth to express the
idea of violent vituperation, has been
| current for a few days, it dies pain
less death, because it has filled no need
"Hobsonize" was another example of an
ephemeral vogue. But when a new
word OF this sort compacts within IT.
self several meanings not SO well eX-
pressed before in single word it has
| good chance to live. Books had long
been extra illustrated" before 1863
when James Granger published his
Biographical History of England, but
| this work lent itself SO readily 10 extra
| illustration that people began to Gran
SeriZe" the book and other bookS-that
is mutilate other books by the scores
| cutting out titles. prints. engravtngs
and manuscript notes, which, with wa
ter color sketches, letters, piaybllls and
almost anything else that could he used
| for such a purpose, were carefully
bound into the original book. often
making it ten times as bulky as at
first. Where the infrequent extra il
| illustrator had been harmless the Gran
gerite became a pest.
Names that become common words
| frequently give their owners their only
| hold on fame, or notoriety, they could
| ever have to circulate and rattle
around in hollow mockery of immor-
| tality. But consider the irony of being
| really great and then realizing that
after ALL one will be best known by
| something only accidental or anclary
Lord Brougham, whom many knew as
a statesman, was tainted by the Duke
| of Wellington with the prediction that
| he would be known to posterity chiefly
| by the form of carriage called a
| brougham-with small b. too. All
but You will be known only the
| inventor of the Wellington boots" said
Brougham. "Confound the boots
| had quite forgotten them" was all that
the great duke could say. And his bit
terness was deepened by the sure
knowledge that in time to come thou
| sands Of men would talk Familiarity
of the boots who had never heard of
hjS military victories.