I was in London and visited the Tower Bridge. Afterwards, I went to a pub called The Tower Bridge. Just to be clear, the pub is named after the bridge.
Which of the following are correct?
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The bridge is the eponym of the pub.
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The pub is the eponym of the bridge.
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From the pub, I could see the eponymous bridge.
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After I saw the bridge, I went to the eponymous pub.
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The bridge is the namesake of the pub.
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The pub is the namesake of the bridge.
Best Answer
I found a couple of entries in the New York Times "After Deadline" column useful.
The first:
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:”
Hear, hear.
Edit: For reference, the entry for eponym from Wordsmith.org, one of my favorite resources: