Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2013 November 28

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November 28

Your Nadals, your Sharapovas

Is there a term for the device often adopted by commentators when they pluralise a surname in order to convert that person into a type, or class? Such as "Pro golf is lucrative for the McIlroys, the Scotts, the Kuchars..." Thanks. DA 58.175.129.101 (talk) 08:57, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Eponym? — SMUconlaw (talk) 11:00, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

It's a type of metonym; I'm not sure if there is a more specific term. Not eponym, though.--Atethnekos (Discussion, Contributions) 11:44, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Ah, my bad. — SMUconlaw (talk) 12:29, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Heh. I would just go with example, but you're obviously looking for something more grandiose. Comb through the rhetoric pages; I'd suggest starting with the terms beginning ex- and pro-. — LlywelynII 15:24, 30 November 2013 (UTC)

For a similar concept (e.g. "he's the Benedict Arnold of the cyber-age"), see also the related archived question "Names of Famous People" where, aside from metonymy and eponymy and metaphor, the archetypal name is suggested as well.

So does Sharapova qualify as The Girl from Eponymy? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:20, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

The Girl from Cacophonia, more likely. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 11:36, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

How can I get the etimology of the term "mono-nucleosis"?

I would like to know what is etymology of the medical term "mononucleosis". By the way I would like to get a site that it's expert of medical trems etymology. Thank you. 194.114.146.227 (talk) 09:58, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Wiktionary has a definition which shows the etymology (Basically mono=one, single; nucle[o]=nucleus; osis=disease or condition. You might also find List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes useful. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 10:16, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/mononucleosis --Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 14:43, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

The cells that the disease is named for are not monocytes, as is stated in parenthesis in the first sentence of the page linked to by Lüboslóv Yęzýkin. In the context of blood cells, a mononuclear cell is a cell with a one-lobed nucleus, i.e. either a lymphocyte or a monocyte. What is seen in infectious mononucleosis, is an expansion of atypical mononuclear cells, hence the name. When the disease was named, the exact type of the cells wasn't known, but they were later shown to be CD8⁺ T lymphocytes [1]. Strictly speaking, "mononucleosis" (not preceded by "infectious") just means increased numbers of mononuclear cells for any reason, similarly to lymphocytosis, monocytosis and granulocytosis. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 20:50, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

Wikt doesn't have a folk etym—that's where it came from, sure—and NB did a good job above; but fwiw the OED says it popped up in French first (c. 1901 versus c. 1907 in English). Before the World Wars, English was less dominant in the sciences, so French and German standard usage could matter in the adoption of a new English term. — LlywelynII 15:10, 30 November 2013 (UTC)