Sunday, October 21, 2018

Namely, 11


NAMELY

EP-oh-nimz

a word based on or derived from a person's name.
First Known Use: mid-19th century

“What’s in a Name?”
Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, 2.2­­

11. chauvinist: a person with an exaggerated devotion towards a gender, person or group; a person with excessive patriotism (from Nicolas Chauvin, character in a play, La Concorde tricolore, 1831, a devoted follower of Napoleon; play written by Hippolyte Cogniard; first use 1851)

You call someone a chauvinist?
You just might get smacked on the wrist—
Or meet, up close, a human fist.

The word has broadened meaning now—
Applied to other things somehow,
Like maleness (which I disavow!).

I’d not known where this word was born—
Suspected France (I could have sworn).
Would this word fit, oh, Jason Bourne?

the Cogniard brothers


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