Namely, 60

NAMELY

eponyms (EP-uh-nimz)

words based on or derived from a person's name.

First Known Use: mid-19^th century

“What’s in a Name?”

Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, 2.2­­

60: derrick: a tall, slender structure over an oil well used for hoisting pipes and lowering them into the well holes (from Thomas Derrick, a 17^th-century English hangman; the word originally referred to a gallows; first known use of word, 1752).

“You’d like to see our derrick, right?”

I thought so, yes, in early light.

But when I saw the gallows there,

I said, “This isn’t really fair!”

My hands were tied? What could I do

But go along till all was through?

And so I thought, Well, what the heck

If there’s a rope around my neck?

The trapdoor I was standing on—

Gave way right then—and I was gone.

The last sound as I entered black?

The echo of a painful CRACK!