["I x-ray, you x-ray..." A comparative study of eponymous verbs on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of roentgen rays].
Eponyms are derived from the name of a person. Eponymic verbs are rare compared to eponymic nouns and adjectives. The German Duden dictionary lists eponymic derivatives from the following persons: Amerigo (Vespucci), Bal(1)horn, Beckmesser, Boycott, Faraday, Galvani, Guillotin, Lumbeck, Lynch, Mendel, Morse, Pasteur und Roentgen. Only the verb "to roentgen" is formally identical to the name Roentgen. A computerized analysis of a newspaper that represents standard German (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from January 1, 1993 through March 7, 1995) proves that "to roentgen" (19x) ranges five in frequency of eponymic verbs of contemporary German-behind to boycott (363x), to ballhornize (33x), to lynch (30x), to americanize (29x).
Moskopp
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Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster.
D004850:Eponyms; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D011859:Radiography; D009626:Terminology as Topic