Where Some Words We Use Come From

Some peoples names have become nouns. Many were remembered in a good way. Others were not so fortunate. Many of these names have become nouns we use almost on a daily basis. To name a few..:

'MICKEY FINN'- Michael Finnish, An American saloon keeper.
'PLATONIC'- Plato, the Greek philosopher.
'RITZY'- The Swiss hotelier, César Ritz.
'DRACONIAN'- Draco a legislator in Athens (around 650 BC). Even minor offenses resulted in death penalties.
'CASANOVA'- Giovanni Jacopo Casanova de Seingalt (Italy). Lover of adventure and women.
'HOOLIGAN'- Patrick Hooligan, an Irish bouncer and thief who lived in the London.
'GERRYMANDER'- Elbridge Gerry, 9th Governor of Massachusetts who died in 1814. The first guy to redraw electoral districts. (5th vice-President under James Madison). He said, "The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy." Maybe this explains why he did what he did.


Wikipedia: created a list of inventions named after people. Here's few of the more well known inventions out of many they've listed.

Bunsen burner – Robert Bunsen
Derrick – Thomas Derrick
Doppler radar – Christian Doppler
Graham cracker – Rev Sylvester Graham
Jacuzzi – Candido Jacuzzi
Phillips screw – Henry F. Phillips
Uzi – Uziel Gal



Wikipedia also made a list of former trademarks that have been genericized. A few examples are...

Dry ice- Trademarked by the Dry Ice Corporation of America in 1925.
Teleprompter- Originated in the 1950s as a trade name used by the TelePrompTer Corporation.
App- Trademark claimed by Apple, Inc.; cancelled.
Dumpster- Trademark was cancelled in 2015.Trademarked by Dempster Brothers, Inc
Webster's Dictionary- The publishers with the strongest link to the original are Merriam-Webster, but they have a trademark only on "Merriam-Webster", and other dictionaries are legally published as "Webster's Dictionary"


There's also a list of protected trademarks despite being protected people use them anyway. However competing companies cannot. Here's a few of those.

AstroTurf- Belongs to Monsanto Company
Band-Aid- Belongs to Johnson & Johnoson
Chyron- ChyronHego Corporation
Croc-Pot- Sunbeam Products
Kleenex- Kimberly-Clark