Lovelace, Maecenas, Silhouette and other surnames of famous people who have lost the capital letter, becoming common nouns

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In history, there are many ways to create a miraculous monument to man. You can, for example, write a book about him, call a street or even a city after him. But, probably, one of the most durable is linguistic memory, when the name of a hero or villain is preserved in the language itself, passing into the category of common nouns. At the same time, the loss of a capital letter is a small price, because such a word can live for centuries and even millennia.

Some surnames turn into generalized concepts literally before our eyes (suffice it to recall Michael Schumacher), but many have already become so ingrained in speech that we do not even know about the eponyms that once really existed - that is how people-prototypes are called.

Robert Lovelace

This common name, which is awarded to windy libertines, is a memory of Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa. The book was wildly popular with readers of the 18th century. The image of a young aristocrat who killed an honest and chaste girl turned out to be so vivid that, to the horror of the author himself, it overshadowed the figure of the tender Clarissa. Richardson complained that even respectable citizens liked this libertine. By the way, today this peculiarity of the audience's perception of "bad guys" not only does not surprise modern authors, but is actively exploited by them. One way or another, but the word stuck and still exists safely (although, as linguists note, it is used only in Russian and Ukrainian languages).

Ivan Petrovich Kulibin

The famous nugget of the Russian land, nicknamed "Nizhny Novgorod Archimedes", is for us a symbol of self-made creativity. His most famous inventions were: the project of a bridge across the Neva, an achromatic microscope, a searchlight, a river vessel with a vane engine, a screw elevator, a scooter carriage and much more. The very first work of the young master - a unique clock with a music box and a mini-theater so conquered Catherine II that the empress brought Kulibin closer to her. It is known that Ivan Petrovich was a very modest man and did not like to change his habits. Even taking the post of head of the mechanical workshop of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he walked everywhere in a long caftan, boots and wore a thick beard, answering numerous jokes addressed to him. It is sad that many of his important projects never came to fruition.

Guy the Tsilny Patron of the Arts

This statesman of Ancient Rome could be called the first minister of culture of his time. As a personal friend and assistant to Emperor Octavian Augustus, he not only dealt with state affairs, but was also considered a famous patron of the fine arts. The patron assisted many talented poets of that time, including Virgil and Horace. In relations with the emperor, he was incorruptible and loved to "cut the truth in the eyes." However, the monarch loved him precisely for this. The memory of the patron saint of talents was preserved, probably due to the fact that numerous wards glorified the Maecenas in their immortal works.

Paparazzi (Tazio Secchiaroli)

The image of the nosy journalist, popping his camera everywhere, first appeared in Federico Fellini's film La Dolce Vita. The surname of this character - Paparazzo, has become a household name since then. This cinematic hero had a living prototype - the Italian Tazio Seciarolli. Starting his career as a street photographer, he gradually became one of the founders of the Roma Press Photo agency and Sophia Loren's personal photographer.

Etienne de Silhouette

This eponym was not at all the person who came up with the idea of cutting out figures and faces from black paper. His name got into household names thanks to a joke (perhaps not even very successful). A young, active and very active financier was admitted to the court of King Louis XV thanks to the patronage of the Marquise de Pompadour herself. After becoming Comptroller General of France's finances, Silhouette proposed an extreme measure to replenish the depleted royal treasury: a luxury tax and a temporary ban on recreational activities. The nobility answered him, naturally, with hot hatred and a witty nickname for the then fashionable flat pictures - it seemed to the jokers that the avaricious minimalism of these images corresponded to the nature of the proposed reforms.

Donacien Alphonse Francois de Sade (Marquis de Sade)

The preaching of absolute freedom and the right of man to receive pleasure by any means glorified this French aristocrat, writer and philosopher. Subsequently, sexologist Richard von Kraft-Ebinga coined the term "sadism" - as they began to call cruelty in sexual relationships. Later this word acquired a more general meaning. The writer himself, for repeated acts of violence, was sentenced to imprisonment, sometimes even to death (later the sentence was commuted). In prison, he continued to write pornographic novels and died insane.