If Sir James Paget were alive today, would he be shocked to see his name transmuted into an eponymic adjective? Would he be appalled to find a reference (Lancet 2:213, 1978) to "pagetic pain"? We have no way of knowing, although rumor has it that the sound of a body turning in its grave can on occasion be heard near the cemetery where the renowned English surgeon lies buried.
Why, one might ask, should there be shock, even surprise, at the sight of an eponymic adjective? So many of the world's famous and infamous have bequeathed their names for such adjectival use. We engage in socratic dialogue, profess platonic love, entertain napoleonic ambitions, connive in machiavellian intrigues, strike byronic poses, undertake herculean labors, and watch out for freudian slips. As physicians we encounter our own eponymic adjectives—parkinsonian tremor, pavlovian reflexes, pickwickian syndrome—in great profusion.
Our exposure to adjectivized eponyms should