Excerpt: The Saga of Proper Names / The Story of English - Mario Pei

This quote was added by jfrkuang
Baugh claims that there are in English over five hundred common nouns derived from proper ones. This is probably an understatement, when we consider the vast number of place-names, personal names and nicknames that appear today as names of objects. A few of the better known ones are macadam, derrick, hansom, shrapnel, silhouette, lynch, boycott, pasteurize, mercerize, mesmerize, fletcherize, spoonerism, pander, lilliputian, tabasco, and Charleston...

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