List of eponymous adjectives in English

An eponymous adjective is an adjective which has been derived from the name of a person, real or fictional. Persons from whose name the adjectives have been derived are called eponyms.

Following is a list of eponymous adjectives in English.

A–C

• Aaronic—Aaron (as in Aaronic Priesthood)
• Abbasid—Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (as in Abbasid Dynasty)
• Abelian—Niels Henrik Abel (as in Abelian group)
• Abrahamic—Abraham (as in Abrahamic religions)
• Achillean—Achilles, of Greek mythology
• Adamic—Adam (as in Adamic language); also Adamite (as in pre-Adamite race)
• Addisonian—Thomas Addison (as in Addisonian crisis)
• Adlerian—Alfred Adler (as in Classical Adlerian psychology)
• Aegean—Aegeus, of Greek mythology (as in Aegean Sea)
• Aeolian—Aeolus, of Greek mythology (as in Aeolian Islands); also Eolian (as in Eolian processes)
• Aeschylean—Aeschylus (as in Aeschylean silence
• Aldine—Aldus Manutius (as in Aldine Press)
• Alexandrine—Alexander the Great (as in Alexandrine verse); also Alexandrian (as in Alexandrian period)
• Amperian—André-Marie Ampère (as in Amperian loop)
• Antonian— St. Anthony the Great (as in Antonian monasticism); Antoninus Pius (as in Nervan-Antonian dynasty)
• Antonine—Antoninus Pius (as in Antonine Wall); Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (as in Antonine Plague)
• Apollonian—Apollo, of Greek mythology (as in Apollonian Oracle); Apollonius of Perga (as in Apollonian gasket)
• Archimedean—Archimedes (as in Archimedean screw)
• Arian—Arius
• Aristotelian—Aristotle (as in Aristotelian logic)
• Arminian—Jacobus Arminius
• Arsacid—Arsaces I of Parthia (as in Arsacid Dynasty)
• Arthurian—King Arthur (as in Arthurian legend)
• Artinian—Emil Artin (as in Artinian ring)
• Ashmolean—Elias Ashmole (as in Ashmolean Museum)
• Asimovian—Isaac Asimov (as in Asimovian robot)
• Athanasian—St. Athanasius (as in Athanasian Creed)
• Atlantean—Atlas; also Atlantic
• Augustan—Caesar Augustus (as in Augustan drama)
• Augustinian—St. Augustine (as in Augustinian Order)
• bacchanal—Bacchus, of Roman mythology; also bacchanalian
• Baconian—Francis Bacon (as in Baconian cipher)
• Bahá'í—Bahá'u'lláh (as in Bahá'í Faith)
• Bangsian—John Kendrick Bangs (as in Bangsian fantasy)
• Bayesian—Thomas Bayes (as in Bayesian probability)
• Beatlesque—The Beatles
• Benedictine—Benedict of Nursia (as in Benedictine Rule)
• Benthamite—Jeremy Bentham (as in Benthamite Utilitarianism)
• Bodleian—Thomas Bodley (as in Bodleian Library)
• Bolivarian—Simón Bolívar (as in Bolivarian Revolution)
• Boolean—George Boole (as in Boolean algebra, Boolean logic)
• Brechtian—Bertholt Brecht (as in Brechtian acting)
• Brownian—Robert Brown (as in Brownian motion)
• Brunonian—John Brown, the doctor (as in Brunonian system of medicine)
• Buddhist—Gautama Buddha (as in Buddhist rosary)
• Burkean—Edmund Burke (as in Burkean conservatism)
• Byronic—Lord Byron (as in Byronic hero)

• Caesarean—often incorrectly attributed to Julius Caesar (as in Caesarean section)
• Calvinist—John Calvin (as in Calvinist Church)
• Capetian—Hugh Capet (as in Capetian Dynasty, Direct Capetians)
• Caroline—Charles I of England (as in Caroline era); also Carolinian
• Carolingian—Charles Martel (as in Carolingian dynasty)
• Carrollian—Lewis Carroll, pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
• Cartesian—René Descartes (as in Cartesian coordinate)
• Catilinarian—Catiline (as in Catilinarian conspiracy)
• Chaucerian —Geoffrey Chaucer (as in Chaucerian stanza)
• chauvinistic—Nicolas Chauvin
• Chestertonian—G. K. Chesterton
• Christian—Jesus Christ
• Ciceronian - Cicero
• Claudian—Claudius (as in Julio-Claudian dynasty)
• Clintonian—Bill Clinton
• Columbian—Christopher Columbus (as in Columbian Exchange)
• Confucianist—Confucius
• Constantinian—Constantine I (as in Constantinian dynasty)
• Copernican—Nicolaus Copernicus (as in Copernican System)
• Cromwellian—Oliver Cromwell
• Cushingoid - Harvey Cushing - American physician
• Cyrillic—St. Cyril (as in Cyrillic alphabet)

D–F

• daedal—Daedalus, of Greek mythology; also Daedalian or Daedalean
• Daliesque—Salvador Dalí
• Dantesque—Dante Alighieri; also Dantean
• Darwinian—Charles Darwin (as in Darwinian literary studies)
• Davidic—David (as in Davidic line)
• Derridean—Jacques Derrida (as in Derridean Deconstruction)
• Dickensian—Charles Dickens
• Dionysian—Dionysus, of Greek mythology (as in Dionysian Mysteries); Dionysius Exiguus (as in Dionysian era)
• Diophantine—Diophantus (as in Diophantine equation)
• Dobsonian—John Dobson (as in Dobsonian telescope)
• Dominican—Saint Dominic (as in Dominican Order)
• Dostoevskian—Fyodor Dostoevsky; also Dostoyevskian
• draconian—Draco
• Dulcinian—Fra Dolcino
• dylanesque - Bob Dylan

• Edisonian—Thomas Edison (as in Edisonian approach)
• Edwardian—King Edward VII
• Edwardsian—Jonathan Edwards
• Einsteinian—Albert Einstein
• Eliotic—T. S. Eliot
• Elizabethan—Queen Elizabeth I (as in Elizabethan era)
• Emersonian—Ralph Waldo Emerson (as in Emersonian perfectionism)
• Enochian—Enoch (as in Enochian magic)
• epicurean—Epicurus
• Erasmian—Erasmus (as in Erasmian Reformation)
• erotic—Eros, of Greek mythology
• Euclidean—Euclid (as in Euclidean geometry, Euclidean algorithm)
• Euripidean—Euripides
• Eustachian—Eustachius (as in Eustachian tube)

• Fabian—Fabius Maximus (as in Fabian strategy)
• Fallopian—Gabriele Falloppio (as in Fallopian tube)
• Falstaffian—Sir John Falstaff, Shakespeare's fictional character
• Faulknerian—William Faulkner
• Faustian—Faust, Goethe's fictional character (as in Faustian deal)
• Felliniesque—Federico Fellini
• Flavian—Titus Flavius Vespasianus (Vespasian) (as in Flavian dynasty)
• Fortean—Charles Fort (as in Fortean Society)
• Franciscan—St. Francis of Assisi (as in Franciscan Order)
• Franklinic—Benjamin Franklin (as in Franklinic electricity, franklinic taste)
• Frederician—Frederick the Great (as in Frederician Rococo)
• Freudian—Sigmund Freud (as in Freudian slip)
• Frostian—Robert Frost

G–J

• Galilean—Galileo Galilei (as in Galilean moons)
• Galvanic—Luigi Galvani (as in Galvanic cell)
• Gandhian—Mahatma Gandhi (as in Gandhian economics)
• gargantuan—Gargantua, Rabelais's fictional character
• Gaussian—Carl Friedrich Gauss (as in Gaussian function)
• Georgian— any of the first 4 Hanoverian kings of England (all named George)
• Gilliamesque—Terry Gilliam (similar to Kafkaesque and Pythonesque, said of films, animations, and scenarios)
• Gladstonian—William Gladstone (as in Gladstonian Liberalism)
• Gödelian—Kurt Gödel (as in Gödelian incompleteness)
• Gregorian—Pope Gregory I (as in Gregorian chant); Pope Gregory XIII (as in Gregorian calendar)
• Gricean—Paul Grice (as in Gricean maxims)
• Grundtvigian—N.F.S. Grundtvig (as in Grundtvigian Lutheranism)

• Handelian—George Frideric Handel
• Hamiltonian—Sir William Rowan Hamilton (as in Hamiltonian path); Alexander Hamilton (as in Hamiltonian economic program)
• Hamitic—Ham (as in Hamitic languages)
• Hegelian—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (as in Hegelian dialectic)
• Henrician—King Henry VIII (as in Henrician Reformation); Henry III of France (as in Henrician Articles)
• herculean—Hercules, of Greek mythology (as in herculean task)
• hermaphroditic—Hermaphroditus, of Greek mythology
• hermetic—Hermes Trismegistus, a mythological alchemist (as in hermetic seal)
• Herodian—Herod the Great (as in Herodian dynasty)
• Heronian—Hero of Alexandria (as in Heronian triangle)
• Hilbertian—David Hilbert (as in Hilbertian field)
• Hippocratic—Hippocrates (as in Hippocratic Oath)
• Hitchcockian—Alfred Hitchcock
• Hitlerian—Adolf Hitler
• Hobbesian—Thomas Hobbes
• Holmesian—Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle's fictional character; also Sherlockian
• Homeric—Homer
• Horatian—Horace (as in Horatian satire)
• Hunterian—William Hunter (anatomist) (as in Hunterian Museum)
• Hussite—Jan Hus (as in Hussite Wars)

• Ignatian—Ignatius of Loyola (as in Ignatian spirituality)

• Jacksonian—Andrew Jackson (as in Jacksonian democracy); John Hughlings Jackson (as in Jacksonian seizure)
• Jacobean—King James I (as in Jacobean era)
• Jacobian—Carl Gustav Jacobi (as in Jacobian matrix)
• Jacobite—King James II (as in Jacobite Rising)
• Jagiellonian—Władysław II Jagiełło (as in Jagiellonian dynasty)
• Japhetic—Japheth (as in Japhetic theory}
• Jeffersonian—Thomas Jefferson (as in Jeffersonian democracy or Jeffersonian Model)
• Johannine—John the Apostle (as in Johannine literature)
• Johnsonian—Samuel Johnson
• Jordanesque—Michael Jordan (usually denotes remarkable athletic achievement or dominance)
• jovial—[Jove/Jupiter, of Roman mythology; also Jovian
• Joycean—James Joyce (as in Pre-Joycean Fellowship)
• Julian—Julius Caesar (as in Julian calendar)
• Jungian—Carl Jung (as in Jungian psychology)
• Junoesque—Juno, of Roman mythology
• Juvenalian—Juvenal (as in Juvenalian Satire)

K–M

• Kafkaesque—Franz Kafka
• Kantian—Immanuel Kant
• Keatsian—John Keats
• Kennedyesque—John F. Kennedy
• Keynesian—John Maynard Keynes (as in Keynesian economics)
• Kierkegaardian—Søren Kierkegaard
• Kubrickian—Stanley Kubrick

• Lagrangian—Joseph Louis Lagrange (as in Lagrangian point)
• Lamarckian—Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (as in Lamarckian evolution)
• Laplacian—Pierre-Simon Laplace (as in Laplacian field, Laplacian matrix)
• Levitical—Levi (as in Levitical Priesthood)
• Leibnizian—Gottfried Leibniz (as in Leibnizian calculus)
• Leninist- Vladimir Lenin
• Lilian—Aloysius Lilius (as in Lilian date)
• Lilliputian—Lilliput (from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift)
• Linnaean—Carolus Linnaeus (as in Linnaean taxonomy)
• Lockean—John Locke
• Lorentzian—Hendrik Lorentz (as in Lorentzian function)
• Lovecraftian—H. P. Lovecraft (as in Lovecraftian horror)
• Lucasian—Henry Lucas (as in Lucasian Professor)
• Lullian—Ramon Llull (as in Lullian art); also Llullian
• Lutheran—Martin Luther
• Lynchian—David Lynch

• macadamized—John Loudon McAdam (as in macadamized system)
• Maccabean—Judas Maccabeus (as in Maccabean revolt)
• Machiavellian—Niccolò Machiavelli (often used to represent views or behavior inconsistent with that of its eponym)
• Madisonian—James Madison (as in Madisonian Model)
• Magellanic—Ferdinand Magellan (as in Magellanic Clouds)
• Malpighian—Marcello Malpighi (as in Malpighian corpuscle)
• Malthusian—Thomas Malthus (as in Malthusian catastrophe)
• Manichean—Mani; also Manichaean
• manueline—Manuel I of Portugal
• Marian—Mary (as in Marian apparition); Gaius Marius (as in Marian reforms)
• Marivaudian—Pierre de Marivaux
• Markovian—Andrey Markov (as in Markovian process)
• Marlenesque—Marlene Dietrich (as in Marlenesque nose)
• Marlovian—Christopher Marlowe (as in Marlovian theory)
• martial—Mars, of Roman mythology (as in Martial arts)
• Marxist—Karl Marx (as in Marxist theory); also Marxian (as in Marxian economics)
• masochistic—Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
• maudlin—Mary Magdalene
• Maxwellian—James Clerk Maxwell (as in Maxwellian distribution, Maxwellian demon)
• Mazarine—Jules Cardinal Mazarin (as in mazarine blue)
• McCarthyist—Joseph McCarthy
• Mendelian—Gregor Mendel (as in Mendelian inheritance)
• Menippean—Menippus (as in Menippean satire)
• mercurial—Mercury
• Merovingian—Merovech (as in Merovingian dynasty)
• Metonic—Meton (as in Metonic cycle)
• Miltonic—John Milton; also Miltonian
• Minkowskian—Hermann Minkowski
• Mithridatic—Mithridates VI (as in Mithridatic Wars)
• Mosaic—Moses (as in Mosaic Law, but not as in mosaic floor)
• Muhammadan—Muhammad (as in Muhammadan art)

N–Q

• Napoleonic—Napoléon Bonaparte (as in Napoleonic code)
• narcissistic—Narcissus, of Greek mythology (as in Narcissistic personality disorder)
• Neronian—Nero
• Nervan—Nerva (as in Nervan-Antonian dynasty)
• Nestorian—Nestorius (as in Nestorian Schism)
• Newtonian—Isaac Newton (as in Newtonian telescope)
• Nietzschean—Friedrich Nietzsche (as in Nietzschean affirmation)
• Noachian—Noah (as in Noachian deluge)
• Noetherian—Emmy Noether (as in Noetherian ring)
• Norquistian—Grover Norquist

• Oedipal—Oedipus, of Greek mythology (as in Oedipal complex)
• ohmic—Georg Ohm (as in ohmic device)
• onanistic—Onan
• Orphic—Orpheus, of Greek mythology (as in Orphic Mysteries)
• Orwellian—George Orwell
• Ottoman—Osman I (as in Ottoman Empire)
• Ottonian—Otto I the Great (as in Ottonian Dynasty)
• Oxfordian—Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (as in Oxfordian theory)

• Palladian—Andrea Palladio (as in Palladian architecture)
• Panglossian—Pangloss, Voltaire's fictional character
• Paracelsian—Paracelsus
• parkinsonian—James Parkinson (as in parkinsonian syndrome)
• Pauline—Paul of Tarsus (as in Pauline epistles)
• Pavlovian—Ivan Pavlov (as in Pavlovian conditioning)
• Pecksniffian—Seth Pecksniff, Dickens' fictional character
• Pelagian—Pelagius (as in Pelagian heresy)
• Periclean—Pericles (as in Periclean Athens)
• Petrine—Saint Peter (as in Petrine primacy); also Peter the Great (as in Petrine baroque)
• Piagetian—Jean Piaget (as in Piagetian theory)
• Pickwickian—Samuel Pickwick, Dickens' fictional character
• Pinteresque—Harold Pinter
• Platonic—Plato (as in Platonic love)
• Plinian—Pliny (as in Plinian eruption)
• Plutarchian—Plutarch
• plutonic—Pluto, of Greek & Roman mythology (as in Plutonic theory); also plutonian
• Pombaline—Marquis of Pombal (as in Pombaline Downtown)
• Procrustean—Procrustes, of Greek mythology
• Promethean—Prometheus, of Greek mythology
• protean—Proteus, of Greek mythology
• Proustian—Marcel Proust (as in Proustian memory)
• Ptolemaic—Ptolemy (as in Ptolemaic system); Ptolemy I Soter (as in Ptolemaic dynasty)
• Pyrrhic—Pyrrhus of Epirus (as in Pyrrhic victory)
• Pyrrhonian—Pyrrho (as in Pyrrhonian skepticism)
• Pythagorean—Pythagoras (as in Pythagorean theorem)
• Pythonic—Monty Python, a more correct eponym, used by Terry Jones, for the more commonly used Pythonesque (as in Pythonic sketches)
• Pythonesque—Monty Python, fictional character name from television comedy (as in Pythonesque humour)

• Quirinal—Quirinus, of Roman mythology (as in Quirinal Hill)
• quixotic—Don Quixote, Cervantes' fictional character

R–U

• Rabelaisian—François Rabelais
• Randian—Ayn Rand (as in Randian hero)
• Raphaelesque—Raphael; also Raphaelite (as in Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood)
• Rastafarian—Ras Tafari (Haile Selassie)
• Reaganesque—Ronald Reagan
• Ricardian—David Ricardo (as in Ricardian economics)
• Richardsonian—Henry Hobson Richardson (as in Richardsonian Romanesque)
• Riemannian—Bernhard Riemann (as in Riemannian geometry)
• ritzy—César Ritz
• Rockwellian—Norman Rockwell
• Rogerian—Carl Rogers (as in Rogerian therapy)
• Rothbardian—Murray N. Rothbard
• Rousseauian—Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Rubenesque—Pieter Paul Rubens
• Ruthian—Babe Ruth

• sadistic—Marquis de Sade
• Samsonian—Samson
• Sapphic—Sappho (as in Sapphic love)
• Sartrean—Jean-Paul Sartre
• Sassanid—Sassan (as in Sassanid dynasty); also Sassanian
• satanic—Satan (as in Satanic Verses)
• Seleucid—Seleucus I Nicator (as in Seleucid Empire)
• Semitic—Shem (as in Semitic languages)
• Senecan—Seneca (as in Senecan Tragedy)
• Servian—Servius Tullius (as in Servian Wall)
• Severan—Septimius Severus (as in Severan dynasty)
• Shakespearean—William Shakespeare (as in Shakespearean authorship, Shakespearean tragedy)
• Shavian—George Bernard Shaw (as in Shavian alphabet, Shavian reversal)
• Sistine—Pope Sixtus IV (as in Sistine Chapel)
• Sisyphean—Sisyphus, of Greek mythology
• Skinnerian—B. F. Skinner (as in Skinnerian behaviorism)
• Smithsonian—James Smithson (as in Smithsonian Institution)
• Socinian—Faustus Socinus
• Socratic—Socrates (as in Socratic method)
• Solomonic—Solomon (as in Solomonic dynasty)
• Solonian—Solon (as in Solonian Constitution)
• Sophoclean—Sophocles
• Spencerian—Platt Rogers Spencer (as in Spencerian script)
• Spenserian—Edmund Spenser (as in Spenserian stanza)
• Spielbergian—Steven Spielberg
• Stalinist—Joseph Stalin (as in Stalinist architecture)
• stentorian—Stentor, of Greek mythology

• Tennysonian—Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• terpsichorean—Terpsichore
• Theodosian—Count Theodosius (as in Theodosian dynasty)
• thespian—Thespis
• Thomist—St. Thomas Aquinas (as in Thomist philosophy)
• Thomsonian—Dr. Samuel Thomson (as in Thomsonian Medicine)
• Thoreauvian—Henry David Thoreau
• thrasonical—Thraso, Terence's fictional character
• Timurid—Timur (Tamerlane) (as in Timurid Empire)
• Tironian—Marcus Tullius Tiro (as in Tironian notes)
• Titanic—Titan (as in Titanic prime)
• Tolstoyan—Leo Tolstoy; also Tolstoian
• Torricellian—Evangelista Torricelli (as in Torricellian chamber)
• Trotskyist—Leon Trotsky
• Tychonic—Tycho Brahe (as in Tychonic system); also Tychonian

• Umayyad—Umayya ibn Abd Shams (as in Umayyad Dynasty)

V–Z

• Vesalian—Vesalius
• Vestal—Vesta, of Roman mythology (as in Vestal Virgin)
• Victorian—Queen Victoria (as in Victorian era)
• Virgilian—Virgil; also Vergilian
• Vitruvian—Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (as in Vitruvian Man)
• Voltaic—Alessandro Volta (as in Voltaic pile)
• Voltairean—Voltaire
• Vonnegutian - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Vygotskian—Lev Vygotsky

• Wagnerian—Richard Wagner (as in Wagnerian rock)
• Waldensian—Peter Waldo (as in Waldensian Church)
• Washingtonian—George Washington; Martha Washington (as in Washingtonian movement)
• Wesleyan—John Wesley (as in Wesleyan Church)
• Whedonesque—Joss Whedon (popularized by the fan site Whedonesque.com)
• Williamite—King William III (as in Williamite War)
• Wilsonian—Woodrow Wilson
• Wolffian—Caspar Friedrich Wolff (a Wolffian body, as in Wolffian duct and Wolffian ridge)
• Wronskian—Josef Hoëné-Wroński (as in Wronskian determinant)

• Zoroastrian—Zoroaster (Zarathustra); also Zarathustrian
• Zwinglian—Huldrych Zwingli

See also

• List of eponyms