RT Journal
T1 EPonyms
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 1969
FD February 10
VO 207
IS 6
SP 1142
OP 1143
DO 10.1001/jama.1969.03150190064018
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1969.03150190064018
AB The English language is neither logical nor consistent. Physicians face a particular aspect of the linguistic illogic in the matter of disease nomenclature.In general there are two ways of identifying a disease or some aspect thereof, the objective or descriptive way and the eponymic. The descriptive name tells some objective feature which can serve as an identifying handle—tuberculosis indicates a disease characterized by small lumps or tubercles; whooping cough derives its name from a more or less characteristic cough. The eponymic identification attaches a man's name to a condition, usually but not always the name of the man who discovered it. Of course, the term "eponymic" is not restricted to disease but applies to any object or institution or place which bears the name of a person. Thus, in strict terminology, Cape Kennedy, Harvard College, Martin Luther King Drive are all eponyms and contrast with Cape of Good Hope,