Learn English – Deciding between “eponymous” and “titular”

I found a couple of entries in the New York Times "After Deadline" column useful.

The first:

In precise, traditional usage, an “eponym” is someone or something that gives its name to something else. So “eponymous” describes the giver of the name, NOT the receiver. A restaurateur named Joe Smith could be described as the eponymous owner of Joe Smith’s Restaurant, but the establishment is not “Mr. Smith’s eponymous restaurant.”

(The opposite problem often occurs with “namesake.” That word properly describes the receiver of the name — a grandchild may be the namesake of her grandmother, but not the other way around.)

So the only ones of your examples that have the correct use of “eponymous” are those that describe the giver (the bridge) and not the receiver. And conversely, only in #6 is “namesake” used correctly.

The second entry is more pertinent to the use of “eponymous:”

Sometimes I quibble over words we overuse. Sometimes I complain about words that are misused. And sometimes I take issue with words that seem pretentious or contrived.

Then there’s “eponymous,” which could fit any of those categories.

In precise use, an eponym is someone who gives a name to something else, and “eponymous” describes the source of the name, not the receiver.

More often than not, we and others muddle this distinction. And often, there’s a way to say what we mean without using “eponymous” at all. So let’s use it sparingly, and wisely.

Hear, hear.

Edit: For reference, the entry for eponym from Wordsmith.org, one of my favorite resources:

eponym (EP-uh-nim) noun

1. A person, real or imaginary, from whom something, as a tribe, nation, or place, takes or is said to take its name.

2. A word based on or derived from a person's name.

3. Any ancient official whose name was used to designate his year of office.

Probably the best example I can give you of narrative nonfiction is the work of John McPhee, who has written largely for The New Yorker. To quote from the Wikipedia article about him:

McPhee's subjects, reflecting his personal interests, are highly eclectic. He has written pieces on lifting body development (The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed), the United States Merchant Marine (Looking for a Ship), farmers' markets (Giving Good Weight), freight transportation (Uncommon Carriers), the shifting flow of the Mississippi River (The Control of Nature), geology (in several books), as well as a short book entirely on the subject of oranges. One of his most widely read books, Coming into the Country, is about the Alaskan wilderness.

Like other practitioners of the genre, McPhee tells a story in an engaging, personal way that often injects something of the author's point of view. Often he even becomes part of the story. He once went on a cross-country trip with an over-the-road trucker to document that lifestyle, becoming part of it himself. You might suppose that driving thousands of miles in a big rig must be pretty boring, but McPhee finds ways to make it engaging — turning it into a story full of interesting details, observations, and opinions. For example, did you know that truckers don't use their brakes on downgrades except in emergencies? With the enormous weight they need to slow down, their brakes would wear out very quickly, so they have to resort to other strategies. McPhee tells you this, and also what happens to truckers who don't make it. Always it is a narrative told about someone by the person sitting in the passenger seat right next to him. That is what makes it narrative nonfiction.

Here is the opening paragraph of that book, Uncommon Carriers, taken from Amazon. It should give you some of the flavor of the writing.

I don't know about you, but that makes me want to keep on reading.