Tuesday February 5th 2008 - Nominative determinism
What's in a name?
Jean-Claude Trichet being the President of the European Central Bank does not conjur up much for most Europeans, except when you realize that Trichet is pronounced the same way as "tricher" meaning "to trick" in French. Pure coincidence?
What about Steven Butcher who runs the delicatessen down the road? Fluke?
Chris Galley gave us a humorous presentation on nominative determinism also known as aptonyms.
His introductory sentence illustrated well the topic: "The British New Scientist, in its "Feedback" column, has since tackled this enigmatic phenomenon many times. Nominative determinism was introduced first in 1994, when it was remarked that a paper on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology was authored by J.W. Splatt and D. Weedon!"
Wikipedia contains a good article on the subject for those wishing to know more.
Jean-Claude Trichet being the President of the European Central Bank does not conjur up much for most Europeans, except when you realize that Trichet is pronounced the same way as "tricher" meaning "to trick" in French. Pure coincidence?
What about Steven Butcher who runs the delicatessen down the road? Fluke?
Chris Galley gave us a humorous presentation on nominative determinism also known as aptonyms.
His introductory sentence illustrated well the topic: "The British New Scientist, in its "Feedback" column, has since tackled this enigmatic phenomenon many times. Nominative determinism was introduced first in 1994, when it was remarked that a paper on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology was authored by J.W. Splatt and D. Weedon!"
Wikipedia contains a good article on the subject for those wishing to know more.
posted by James Newton at 6:56 AM
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