List of eponymous adjectives in English
From Self-sufficiency
An eponymous adjective is an adjective which has been derived from the name of a person, real or fictional. Persons from whose name the adjectives have been derived are called eponyms.
Following is a list of eponymous adjectives in English.
A–C
- Aaronic—Aaron (as in Aaronic Priesthood)
- Abbasid—Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (as in Abbasid Dynasty)
- Abelian—Niels Henrik Abel (as in Abelian group)
- Abrahamic—Abraham (as in Abrahamic religions)
- Achillean—Achilles, of Greek mythology
- Adamic—Adam (as in Adamic language); also Adamite (as in pre-Adamite race)
- Addisonian—Thomas Addison (as in Addisonian crisis)
- Adlerian—Alfred Adler (as in Classical Adlerian psychology)
- Aegean—Aegeus, of Greek mythology (as in Aegean Sea)
- Aeolian—Aeolus, of Greek mythology (as in Aeolian Islands); also Eolian (as in Eolian processes)
- Aeschylean—Aeschylus (as in Aeschylean silence
- Aldine—Aldus Manutius (as in Aldine Press)
- Alexandrine—Alexander the Great (as in Alexandrine verse); also Alexandrian (as in Alexandrian period)
- American-Amerigo Vespucci
- Ampèrian—André-Marie Ampère (as in Ampèrian loop)
- Antonian— St. Anthony the Great (as in Antonian monasticism); Antoninus Pius (as in Nervan-Antonian dynasty)
- Antonine—Antoninus Pius (as in Antonine Wall); Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (as in Antonine Plague)
- Apollonian—Apollo, of Greek mythology (as in Apollonian Oracle); Apollonius of Perga (as in Apollonian gasket)
- Archimedean—Archimedes (as in Archimedean screw)
- Arian—Arius
- Aristotelian—Aristotle (as in Aristotelian logic)
- Arminian—Jacobus Arminius
- Arsacid—Arsaces I of Parthia (as in Arsacid Dynasty)
- Arthurian—King Arthur (as in Arthurian legend)
- Artinian—Emil Artin (as in Artinian ring)
- Ashmolean—Elias Ashmole (as in Ashmolean Museum)
- Asimovian—Isaac Asimov (as in Asimovian robot)
- Athanasian—St. Athanasius (as in Athanasian Creed)
- Atlantean—Atlas; also Atlantic
- Augustan—Caesar Augustus (as in Augustan drama)
- Augustinian—St. Augustine (as in Augustinian Order)
- bacchanal—Bacchus, of Roman mythology; also "bacchanalian"
- Baconian—Francis Bacon (as in Baconian cipher)
- Bahá'í—Bahá'u'lláh (as in Bahá'í Faith)
- Bangsian—John Kendrick Bangs (as in Bangsian fantasy)
- Bakerian -Henry Baker (as in Bakerian Lecture)
- Bayesian—Thomas Bayes (as in Bayesian probability)
- Beatlesque—The Beatles
- Benedictine—Benedict of Nursia (as in Benedictine Rule)
- Benthamite—Jeremy Bentham (as in Benthamite Utilitarianism)
- Bodleian—Thomas Bodley (as in Bodleian Library)
- Bolivarian—Simón Bolívar (as in Bolivarian Revolution)
- Boolean—George Boole (as in Boolean algebra, Boolean logic)
- Brechtian—Bertholt Brecht (as in Brechtian acting)
- Brownian—Robert Brown (as in Brownian motion)
- Brunonian—John Brown, the doctor (as in Brunonian system of medicine)
- Buddhist—Gautama Buddha (as in Buddhist rosary)
- Burkean—Edmund Burke (as in Burkean conservatism)
- Byronic—Lord Byron (as in Byronic hero)
- Caesarean—often incorrectly attributed to Julius Caesar (as in Caesarean section)
- Calvinist—John Calvin (as in Calvinist Church)
- Capetian—Hugh Capet (as in Capetian Dynasty, Direct Capetians)
- Capraesque-Frank Capra
- Caroline—Charles I of England (as in Caroline era); also Carolinian
- Carolingian—Charles Martel (as in Carolingian dynasty)
- Carrollian—Lewis Carroll, pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
- Cartesian—René Descartes (as in Cartesian coordinate)
- Catilinarian—Catiline (as in Catilinarian conspiracy)
- Chaucerian —Geoffrey Chaucer (as in Chaucerian stanza)
- chauvinistic—Nicolas Chauvin
- Chestertonian—G. K. Chesterton
- Chomskyan-Noam Chomsky
- Christian—Jesus Christ
- Churrigueresque—José Benito de Churriguera
- Ciceronian - Cicero
- Claudian—Claudius (as in Julio-Claudian dynasty)
- Clintonian—Bill Clinton
- Columbian—Christopher Columbus (as in Columbian Exchange)
- Confucianist—Confucius
- Constantinian—Constantine I (as in Constantinian dynasty)
- Copernican—Nicolaus Copernicus (as in Copernican System)
- Cromwellian—Oliver Cromwell
- Croonian - William Croone (as in Croonian Lecture}
- Cushingoid - Harvey Cushing - American physician
- Cyrillic—St. Cyril (as in Cyrillic alphabet)
D–F
- daedal—Daedalus, of Greek mythology; also Daedalian or Daedalean
- Daliesque—Salvador Dalí
- Daltonian - John Dalton
- Dantesque—Dante Alighieri; also Dantean
- Darwinian—Charles Darwin (as in Darwinian literary studies)
- Davidic—David (as in Davidic line)
- Derridean—Jacques Derrida (as in Derridean Deconstruction)
- Dickensian—Charles Dickens
- Dionysian—Dionysus, of Greek mythology (as in Dionysian Mysteries); Dionysius Exiguus (as in Dionysian era)
- Diophantine—Diophantus (as in Diophantine equation)
- Dobsonian—John Dobson (as in Dobsonian telescope)
- Dominican—Saint Dominic (as in Dominican Order)
- Dostoevskian—Fyodor Dostoevsky; also Dostoyevskian
- draconian—Draco
- Dulcinian—Fra Dolcino
- dylanesque - Bob Dylan
- Edisonian—Thomas Edison (as in Edisonian approach)
- Edwardian—King Edward VII
- Edwardsian—Jonathan Edwards
- Einsteinian—Albert Einstein
- Eliotic—T. S. Eliot
- Elizabethan—Queen Elizabeth I (as in Elizabethan era)
- Emersonian—Ralph Waldo Emerson (as in Emersonian perfectionism)
- Enochian—Enoch (as in Enochian magic)
- epicurean—Epicurus
- Erasmian—Erasmus (as in Erasmian Reformation)
- erotic—Eros, of Greek mythology
- Euclidean—Euclid (as in Euclidean geometry, Euclidean algorithm)
- Euripidean—Euripides
- Eustachian—Eustachius (as in Eustachian tube)
- Fabian—Fabius Maximus (as in Fabian strategy)
- Fallopian—Gabriele Falloppio (as in Fallopian tube)
- Falstaffian—Sir John Falstaff, Shakespeare's fictional character
- Faradic - Michael Faraday
- Fatimid—Fatima as-Zahra (as in Fatimid caliphate)
- Faulknerian—William Faulkner
- Faustian—Faust, Goethe's fictional character (as in Faustian deal)
- Felliniesque—Federico Fellini
- Flavian—Titus Flavius Vespasianus (Vespasian) (as in Flavian dynasty)
- Fortean—Charles Fort (as in Fortean Society)
- Franciscan—St. Francis of Assisi (as in Franciscan Order)
- Franklinic—Benjamin Franklin (as in Franklinic electricity, franklinic taste)
- Frederician—Frederick the Great (as in Frederician Rococo)
- Freudian—Sigmund Freud (as in Freudian slip)
- Frostian—Robert Frost
- Fullerian - John 'Mad Jack' Fuller (as in Fullerian Professor of Chemistry}
G–J
- Galilean—Galileo Galilei (as in Galilean moons)
- Galvanic—Luigi Galvani (as in Galvanic cell)
- Gandhian—Mahatma Gandhi (as in Gandhian economics)
- gargantuan—Gargantua, Rabelais's fictional character
- Gaullist - Charles de Gaulle
- Gaussian—Carl Friedrich Gauss (as in Gaussian function)
- Georgian— any of the first 4 Hanoverian kings of England (all named George)
- Gilliamesque—Terry Gilliam (similar to Kafkaesque and Pythonesque, said of films, animations, and scenarios)
- Gladstonian—William Ewart Gladstone (as in Gladstonian Liberalism)
- Gödelian—Kurt Gödel (as in Gödelian incompleteness)
- Goulstonian - Theodore Goulston (as in Goulstonian Lecture)
- Gregorian—Pope Gregory I (as in Gregorian chant); Pope Gregory XIII (as in Gregorian calendar)
- Gricean—Paul Grice (as in Gricean maxims)
- Grundtvigian—N.F.S. Grundtvig (as in Grundtvigian Lutheranism)
- Handelian—George Frideric Handel
- Hamiltonian—Sir William Rowan Hamilton (as in Hamiltonian path); Alexander Hamilton (as in Hamiltonian economic program)
- Hamitic—Ham (as in Hamitic languages)
- Harveian - William Harvey (as in Harveian Oration}
- Hegelian—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (as in Hegelian dialectic)
- Henrician—King Henry VIII (as in Henrician Reformation); Henry III of France (as in Henrician Articles)
- herculean—Hercules, of Greek mythology (as in herculean task)
- hermaphroditic—Hermaphroditus, of Greek mythology
- hermetic—Hermes Trismegistus, a mythological alchemist (as in hermetic seal)
- Herodian—Herod the Great (as in Herodian Dynasty)
- Heronian—Hero of Alexandria (as in Heronian triangle)
- Hilbertian—David Hilbert (as in Hilbertian field)
- Hippocratic—Hippocrates (as in Hippocratic Oath)
- Hitchcockian—Alfred Hitchcock
- Hitlerian—Adolf Hitler
- Hobbesian—Thomas Hobbes
- Holmesian—Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle's fictional character; also Sherlockian
- Homeric—Homer
- Horatian—Horace (as in Horatian satire)
- Humean—David Hume
- Hunterian—William Hunter (anatomist) (as in Hunterian Museum)
- Hussite—Jan Hus (as in Hussite Wars)
- Ignatian—Ignatius of Loyola (as in Ignatian spirituality)
- Jacksonian—Andrew Jackson (as in Jacksonian democracy); John Hughlings Jackson (as in Jacksonian seizure)
- Jacobean—King James I (as in Jacobean era)
- Jacobian—Carl Gustav Jacobi (as in Jacobian matrix)
- Jacobite—King James II (as in Jacobite Rising)
- Jagiellonian—Władysław II Jagiełło (as in Jagiellonian dynasty)
- Japhetic—Japheth (as in Japhetic theory}
- Jeffersonian—Thomas Jefferson (as in Jeffersonian democracy or Jeffersonian Model)
- Johannine—John the Apostle (as in Johannine literature)
- Johnsonian—Samuel Johnson
- Jordanesque—Michael Jordan (usually denotes remarkable athletic achievement or dominance)
- jovial—[Jove/Jupiter, of Roman mythology; also Jovian
- Joycean—James Joyce (as in Pre-Joycean Fellowship)
- Julian—Julius Caesar (as in Julian calendar)
- Jungian—Carl Jung (as in Jungian psychology)
- Junoesque—Juno, of Roman mythology
- Juvenalian—Juvenal (as in Juvenalian Satire)
K–M
- Kafkaesque—Franz Kafka
- Kantian—Immanuel Kant
- Keatsian—John Keats
- Kennedyesque—John F. Kennedy
- Keynesian—John Maynard Keynes (as in Keynesian economics)
- Kierkegaardian—Søren Kierkegaard
- Kubrickian—Stanley Kubrick
- Lagrangian—Joseph Louis Lagrange (as in Lagrangian point)
- Lamarckian—Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (as in Lamarckian evolution)
- Laplacian—Pierre-Simon Laplace (as in Laplacian field, Laplacian matrix)
- Levitical—Levi (as in Levitical Priesthood)
- Leibnizian—Gottfried Leibniz (as in Leibnizian calculus)
- Leninist- Vladimir Lenin
- Lilian—Aloysius Lilius (as in Lilian date)
- Lilliputian—Lilliput (from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift)
- Linnaean—Carolus Linnaeus (as in Linnaean taxonomy)
- Lockean—John Locke
- Lorentzian—Hendrik Lorentz (as in Lorentzian function)
- Lovecraftian—H. P. Lovecraft (as in Lovecraftian horror)
- Lucasian—Henry Lucas (as in Lucasian Professor)
- Lullian—Ramon Llull (as in Lullian art); also Llullian
- Lumleian - John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley (as in Lumleian Lectures}
- Lutheran—Martin Luther
- Lynchian—David Lynch
- macadamized—John Loudon McAdam (as in macadamized system)
- Maccabean—Judas Maccabeus (as in Maccabean revolt)
- MacGyverian—Angus MacGyver
- Machiavellian—Niccolò Machiavelli (often used to represent views or behavior inconsistent with that of its eponym)
- Madisonian—James Madison (as in Madisonian Model)
- Magellanic—Ferdinand Magellan (as in Magellanic Clouds)
- Malpighian—Marcello Malpighi (as in Malpighian corpuscle)
- Malthusian—Thomas Malthus (as in Malthusian catastrophe)
- Manichean—Mani; also Manichaean
- manueline—Manuel I of Portugal
- Marian—Mary (as in Marian apparition); Gaius Marius (as in Marian reforms)
- Marivaudian—Pierre de Marivaux
- Markovian—Andrey Markov (as in Markovian process)
- Marlenesque—Marlene Dietrich (as in Marlenesque nose)
- Marlovian—Christopher Marlowe (as in Marlovian theory)
- martial—Mars, of Roman mythology (as in Martial arts)
- Marxist—Karl Marx (as in Marxist theory); also Marxian (as in Marxian economics)
- masochistic—Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
- maudlin—Mary Magdalene
- Maxwellian—James Clerk Maxwell (as in Maxwellian distribution, Maxwellian demon)
- Mazarine—Cardinal Mazarin (as in mazarine blue)
- McCarthyist—Joseph McCarthy
- Mendelian—Gregor Mendel (as in Mendelian inheritance)
- Menippean—Menippus (as in Menippean satire)
- mercurial—Mercury
- Merovingian—Merovech (as in Merovingian dynasty)
- Metonic—Meton (as in Metonic cycle)
- Miltonic—John Milton; also Miltonian
- Minkowskian—Hermann Minkowski
- Mithridatic—Mithridates VI (as in Mithridatic Wars)
- Mosaic—Moses (as in Mosaic Law, but not as in mosaic floor)
- Muhammadan—Muhammad (as in Muhammadan art)
N–Q
- Napierian-John Napier (as in Napierian logarithm)
- Napoleonic—Napoléon Bonaparte (as in Napoleonic code)
- narcissistic—Narcissus, of Greek mythology (as in Narcissistic personality disorder)
- Neronian—Nero
- Nervan—Nerva (as in Nervan-Antonian dynasty)
- Nestorian—Nestorius (as in Nestorian Schism)
- Newtonian—Isaac Newton (as in Newtonian telescope)
- Nietzschean—Friedrich Nietzsche (as in Nietzschean affirmation)
- Noachian—Noah (as in Noachian deluge)
- Noetherian—Emmy Noether (as in Noetherian ring)
- Norquistian—Grover Norquist
- Odyssean-Odysseus
- Oedipal—Oedipus, of Greek mythology (as in Oedipal complex)
- ohmic—Georg Ohm (as in ohmic device)
- onanistic—Onan
- Orphic—Orpheus, of Greek mythology (as in Orphic Mysteries)
- Orwellian—George Orwell
- Ottoman—Osman I (as in Ottoman Empire)
- Ottonian—Otto I the Great (as in Ottonian Dynasty)
- Ovidian - Ovid
- Oxfordian—Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (as in Oxfordian theory)
- Palladian—Andrea Palladio (as in Palladian architecture)
- Panglossian—Pangloss, Voltaire's fictional character
- Paracelsian—Paracelsus
- parkinsonian—James Parkinson (as in parkinsonian syndrome)
- Pauline—Paul of Tarsus (as in Pauline epistles)
- Pavlovian—Ivan Pavlov (as in Pavlovian conditioning)
- Pecksniffian—Seth Pecksniff, Dickens' fictional character
- Pelagian—Pelagius (as in Pelagian heresy)
- Pepysian - Samuel Pepys
- Periclean—Pericles (as in Periclean Athens)
- Petrine—Saint Peter (as in Petrine primacy); also Peter the Great (as in Petrine baroque)
- Piagetian—Jean Piaget (as in Piagetian theory)
- Pickwickian—Samuel Pickwick, Dickens' fictional character
- Pinteresque—Harold Pinter
- Platonic—Plato (as in Platonic love)
- Plinian—Pliny (as in Plinian eruption)
- Plutarchian—Plutarch
- plutonic—Pluto, of Greek & Roman mythology (as in Plutonic theory); also plutonian
- Pombaline—Marquis of Pombal (as in Pombaline Downtown)
- Procrustean—Procrustes, of Greek mythology
- Promethean—Prometheus, of Greek mythology
- protean—Proteus, of Greek mythology
- Proustian—Marcel Proust (as in Proustian memory)
- Ptolemaic—Ptolemy (as in Ptolemaic system); Ptolemy I Soter (as in Ptolemaic dynasty)
- Pyrrhic—Pyrrhus of Epirus (as in Pyrrhic victory)
- Pyrrhonian—Pyrrho (as in Pyrrhonian skepticism)
- Pythagorean—Pythagoras (as in Pythagorean theorem)
- Pythonic—Monty Python, a more correct eponym, used by Terry Jones, for the more commonly used Pythonesque (as in Pythonic sketches)
- Pythonesque—Monty Python, fictional character name from television comedy (as in Pythonesque humour)
- Quirinal—Quirinus, of Roman mythology (as in Quirinal Hill)
- quixotic—Don Quixote, Cervantes' fictional character
R–U
- Rabelaisian—François Rabelais
- Randian—Ayn Rand (as in Randian hero)
- Raphaelesque—Raphael; also Raphaelite (as in Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood)
- Rastafarian—Ras Tafari (Haile Selassie)
- Reaganesque—Ronald Reagan
- Ricardian—David Ricardo (as in Ricardian economics)
- Richardsonian—Henry Hobson Richardson (as in Richardsonian Romanesque)
- Riemannian—Bernhard Riemann (as in Riemannian geometry)
- ritzy—César Ritz
- Rockwellian—Norman Rockwell
- Rogerian—Carl Rogers (as in Rogerian therapy)
- Rothbardian—Murray N. Rothbard
- Rousseauian—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Rubenesque—Pieter Paul Rubens
- Ruthian—Babe Ruth
- sadistic—Marquis de Sade
- Samsonian—Samson
- Sapphic—Sappho (as in Sapphic love)
- Sartrean—Jean-Paul Sartre
- Sassanid—Sassan (as in Sassanid dynasty); also Sassanian
- satanic—Satan (as in Satanic Verses)
- Schubertiade (as in Franz Schubert]])
- Seleucid—Seleucus I Nicator (as in Seleucid Empire)
- Semitic—Shem (as in Semitic languages)
- Senecan—Seneca (as in Senecan Tragedy)
- Servian—Servius Tullius (as in Servian Wall)
- Severan—Septimius Severus (as in Severan dynasty)
- Shakespearean—William Shakespeare (as in Shakespearean authorship, Shakespearean tragedy)
- Shavian—George Bernard Shaw (as in Shavian alphabet, Shavian reversal)
- Sistine—Pope Sixtus IV (as in Sistine Chapel)
- Sisyphean—Sisyphus, of Greek mythology
- Skinnerian—B. F. Skinner (as in Skinnerian behaviorism)
- Smithsonian—James Smithson (as in Smithsonian Institution)
- Socinian—Faustus Socinus
- Socratic—Socrates (as in Socratic method)
- Solomonic—Solomon (as in Solomonic dynasty)
- Solonian—Solon (as in Solonian Constitution)
- Sophoclean—Sophocles
- Spencerian—Platt Rogers Spencer (as in Spencerian script)
- Spenserian—Edmund Spenser (as in Spenserian stanza)
- Spielbergian—Steven Spielberg
- Stalinist—Joseph Stalin (as in Stalinist architecture)
- stentorian—Stentor, of Greek mythology
- Tennysonian—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- terpsichorean—Terpsichore
- Theodosian—Count Theodosius (as in Theodosian dynasty)
- thespian—Thespis
- Thomist—St. Thomas Aquinas (as in Thomist philosophy)
- Thomsonian—Dr. Samuel Thomson (as in Thomsonian Medicine)
- Thoreauvian—Henry David Thoreau
- thrasonical—Thraso, Terence's fictional character
- Titchy-Little Tich, stage name of Harry Relph
- Titian-Titian (as in titian-coloured}
- Timurid—Timur (Tamerlane) (as in Timurid Empire)
- Tironian—Marcus Tullius Tiro (as in Tironian notes)
- Titanic—Titan (as in Titanic prime)
- Tolstoyan—Leo Tolstoy; also Tolstoian
- Torricellian—Evangelista Torricelli (as in Torricellian chamber)
- Trotskyist—Leon Trotsky
- Tychonic—Tycho Brahe (as in Tychonic system); also Tychonian
- Umayyad—Umayya ibn Abd Shams (as in Umayyad Dynasty)
V–Z
- Vesalian—Vesalius
- Vestal—Vesta, of Roman mythology (as in Vestal Virgin)
- Victorian—Queen Victoria (as in Victorian era)
- Virgilian—Virgil; also Vergilian
- Vitruvian—Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (as in Vitruvian Man)
- Voltaic—Alessandro Volta (as in Voltaic pile)
- Voltairean—Voltaire
- Vonnegutian - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- Vygotskian—Lev Vygotsky
- Wagnerian—Richard Wagner (as in Wagnerian rock)
- Waldensian—Peter Waldo (as in Waldensian Church)
- Washingtonian—George Washington; Martha Washington (as in Washingtonian movement)
- Wesleyan—John Wesley (as in Wesleyan Church)
- Whedonesque—Joss Whedon (popularized by the fan site Whedonesque.com)
- Wildean- Oscar Wilde
- Williamite—King William III (as in Williamite War)
- Wilsonian—Woodrow Wilson
- Wolffian—Caspar Friedrich Wolff (a Wolffian body, as in Wolffian duct and Wolffian ridge)
- Wronskian—Josef Hoëné-Wroński (as in Wronskian determinant)
- Zoroastrian—Zoroaster (Zarathustra); also Zarathustrian
- Zwinglian—Huldrych Zwingli