Niccolo Machiavelli, b.1469, d.1527. In his most famous work, The Prince, he set down rules for a science of political power –how to gain power and how to stay in power no matter what means were necessary. Hence the word machiavellian meaning “being or acting in accordance with the principles of government analyzed in Machiavelli’s The Prince, in which political expediency is placed above morality and the use of craft and deceit to maintain the authority and carry out the policies of a ruler is described or more generally, characterized by subtle or unscrupulous cunning, deception, expediency, or dishonesty.”
What other adjectives can you think of that are derived from an author’s name? (Eponyms: “words derived from the name of a real, fictional, mythical or spurious character or person.”) I’m asking only for adjectival eponyms that derive from authors’ names.
Shakespearean, as in Shakespearean sonnet, or Petrarchan, named after the Italian who did Petrarchan sonnets instead, or even Spenserian sonnets, the third type after Edmund Spenser.
Freudian, as in a freudian slip.
Orwellian. “Of, relating to, or evocative of the works of George Orwell, especially the satirical novel 1984, which depicts a futuristic totalitarian state.” Are we living in an Orwellian age?
Darwinian, the Darwinian theory of evolution.
Socratic. Have you ever engaged in a Socratic dialog?
Dickensian. Can you think of any Dickensian characters outside of Dickens’ novels?
Kafkaesque. How about Kafkaesque moments?
If you can’t think of any more eponym that come from authors’ names, you can always make up your own:
Semicolonic: Of or pertaining to a pause for thought between two parts of related thoughts or ideas. Example: The semicolonic silence in the room was only momentary as Engineer Husband completed the theory that his erudite helpmeet had begun to elucidate.
Wasn’t that fun?
