Names Behind Words: Some Common Terms From Some Uncommon People

Dahlia

www.alemaniaparati.diplo.de/Vertretung/mexiko…

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/23/alexanderhumboldt20150aniosbild1propertygaleriebildgross_1.jpg

Prized by the Aztecs, the dahlia, a native flower of Mexico and Central America, was introduced into Europe at the end of the 18th century by the German naturalist Friedrich von Humboldt. Its name honors a Swedish botanist who had died in 1789, Anders Dahl; allegedly, the bloom of the plant resembled Dahl’s untidy hair.

Jacuzzi

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The whirlpool bath widely bath widely known as a Jacuzzi is named for Candido Jacuzzi, an Italian immigrant to the United States. His family was originally involved in aircraft production, but in 1921 the death of one of Jacuzzi’s brothers in the crash of a prototype monoplane influenced his mother to ground the family and urge a change of direction into a less hazardous field: manufacturing hydraulic pumps.

Later, the senior Jacuzzi had the idea of using one of the firm’s jet pumps for hydromassage for his son, who was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis. Perfected in the 1950’s, the revolutionary bath started the fad of the hot tub. Particularly popular in California, it became the basis of a multimillion dollar manufacturing empire.

Nicotine

www.nimausensis.com/…/JeanNicot/JeanNicot.htm

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In 1559 Jean Nicot, a young French scholar and diplomat, was sent to Portugal to negotiate the marriage of six-year-old Princess Marguerite de Valois to the five-year-old King Sebastian of Portugal. Although his mission failed, Nicot took back to France tobacco plants that had recently arrived from Florida.

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By the year of Nicot’s death, his name had become associated with the plant, which was called Nicotiana. But by the 19th century the word nicotine was assigned exclusively to the poisonous active ingredient of the tobacco plant.

www.palaceofvariety.co.uk/page16.htm

Or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/23/jules20leotard20colour_1.jpg

The Leotard: Jules Léotard, a successful French trapeze artist of the 1860’s – and reputedly the first to turn a somersault in midair – was celebrated during his lifetime in the popular song “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze.” After his death, Léotard’s name lived on in the tight-fitting garment he derived for acrobats and dancers.

Rastafarian

www.rastaseed.com/?page_id=67

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/23/haileselassie_1.jpg

A movement that arose on the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean in the late 1930’s, Rastafarianism acquired its name from Prince Ras Tafari of Ethiopia, who in 1930 became Emperor Haile Selassie. Rastafarians believe Selassie to be a deity and the leader whose spirit will guide adherents back to their land of Africa.

Stetson

www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/133/376940/text/

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John Batterson Stetson, a hatmaker born in New Jersey in 1830, established the John B. Stetson Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia, which made the famous 10-gallon cowboy hat. Before acquiring the better-known name of Stetson, the hat was often called a John B.

Tawdry

flickr.com/photos/paullew/413692786/

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Princess Etheldreda, the daughter of a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon king named Anna, was the founder of a monastery at the Isle of Ely, England, and was canonized as Saint Audrey. She died of a throat tumor, which she believed was a punishment for her vanity in wearing necklaces.

saints.sqpn.com/saint-etheldreda/

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To commemorate her, the fashion grew up in medieval times of wearing Saint Audrey silk ribbons around the neck. Stallholders at medieval fairs, however, were all too aware that the country girls could not afford real silk and began to offer cheap substitutes. As the years went by, the quality of these “Seynt Audries” or “tawdry” collars declined so much that the name came to be applied to anything cheap and inferior.

Tureen

history.wisc.edu/sommerville/351/351-045.htm

or: http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/2009/09/23/turenne_1.jpg

Henri, viscount of Turenne, marshal of France, and commander of the French Army during the Thirty Years’ War, once used his helmet as a soup bowl, thus giving the name tureen to any large serving vessel – or so the story goes. A more likely explanation is that the word derives from terrine, French for an earthenware container.