Vol. 62 No. 2 (2014)
Research Article

Medical Eponym Angst

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  • Ernest Lawrence Abel
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/0027773813Z.00000000072

Published 2014-06-01

Keywords

  • adopted names,
  • mainland Chinese students,
  • language contact

Copyright (c) 2014 Maney Publishing

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

An eponym is a person, real or fictitious, after whom something has been named. Eponyms have been an integral part of medical nomenclature and history for centuries, but their continued use, including their spelling, is contentious. This article reviews the history of the term, disagreements concerning its lexical legitimacy, and arguments pro and con about their place in modern medical nomenclature. Despite all the legitimate reasons for dropping them, eponyms are so deeply rooted in medicine that they are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

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