{"product_id":"9781608191628","title":"Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words","description":"Eponymous, \u003ci\u003eadj. \u003c\/i\u003eGiving one's name to a person, place, or thing. \u003cbr\u003eAnonymous, \u003ci\u003eadj. \u003c\/i\u003eAnonymous. \u003cbr\u003eAnonyponymous, \u003ci\u003eadj. \u003c\/i\u003eAnonymous and eponymous. \u003cbr\u003eThe Earl of Sandwich, fond of salted beef and paired slices of toast, found a novel way to eat them all together. Etienne de Silhouette, a former French finance minister, was so notoriously cheap that his name became a byword for chintzy practices-such as substituting a darkened outline for a proper painted portrait. Both bequeathed their names to the language, but neither man is remembered. \u003cbr\u003eIn this clever and funny book, John Bemelmans Marciano illuminates the lives of these anonyponymous persons. A kind of encyclopedia of linguistic biographies, the book is arranged alphabetically, giving the stories of everyone from Abu \"algorithm\" Al-Khwarizmi to Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Along with them you'll find the likes of Harry Shrapnel, Joseph-Ignace Guillotine, and many other people whose vernacular legacies have long outlived their memory. \u003cbr\u003eAccented by amusing line portraits and short etymological essays on subjects like \"superhero eponyms,\" \u003ci\u003eAnonyponymous \u003c\/i\u003eis both a compendium of trivia and a window into the fascinating world of etymology. Carefully curated and unfailingly witty, this book is both a fantastic gift for language lovers and a true pleasure to read.","brand":"Bloomsbury USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47133990977776,"sku":"9781608191628","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781608191628_p0.jpg?v=1763834888","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781608191628","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}