Mrs. Malaprop = Malapropism - any other examples [closed]

Are there other literary examples where-in a character or subject eventually morphed into descriptive verb/genre?

Solution 1:

You're looking for cases in which "a character or subject eventually morphed into descriptive verb/genre". Other answerers have assumed you mean just a fictional character (and not a subject, by which, to be honest, I don't know what you mean), and I'll do the same. They've also not restricted to descriptive verbs and genres, suggesting milquetoast and quixotic, so I, too, won't so restrict.

Some they haven't mentioned are Achillean, aphrodisiac, argonaut, bacchanalia, Mickey Mouse, Falstaffian, Ichabod, Moses basket, Oedipus complex, oedipal, Electra complex, Timonism, and sword of Damocles.

Solution 2:

We seem to be talking about eponymous terms derived from fictional characters? Four of the most famous of those would have to be quixotic, faustian, gargantuan, and holmesian. Another may be chauvinism, but it's unclear whether Nicolas Chauvin was a real person.

Evidently pecksniffian had some currency at some point, but seems to have declined in popularity. Lamentably similar is panglossian.

Solution 3:

"Spoonerism" - after the Rev. Spooner, who reputedly continually interchanged the first letters/sounds of words. "Today we'll learn how to build a turdy stable" - (a Sturdy Table).

Well, if we're limiting ourselves to fictitious persons (not that I see that in the question), I suppose "Bushism" is out. Too bad.

Solution 4:

One of my favorites is milquetoast, describing a timid, submissive person. It comes from the name of a cartoon character, Caspar Milquetoast, created by H. T. Webster in 1924.

There's also Faustian, to describe a bargain in which one trades their moral integrity for material gains.

Pandemonium came from Paradise Lost. We now associate it with mayhem and discord. Milton conceived of it as the name of the place where demons live.

Solution 5:

I believe mondegreen may be another example of a term derived from a fictional character. The caveat is that it's not derived from an actual fictional character, but instead from a character by the name of Lady Mondegreen that Sylvia Wright thought was in a poem due to the mishearing of the line "laid him on the green".