11 People Whose Names Became Adjectives

How do you measure success—money? Clicks? Likes? Mansions? One way to tell if you’ve left a mark on the world is if your name turns into an adjective. This specific form of eponym—a word derived from a moniker—is the highest lexical compliment. From David Lynch to Benjamin Franklin to Queen Elizabeth I, these folks achieved a kind of immortality when their names ended up in the dictionary.

1. Queen Elizabeth I // Elizabethan
2. Alfred Hitchcock // Hitchcockian
3. William Lloyd Garrison // Garrisonian
4. George Orwell // Orwellian
5. Jack Kirby // Kirbyesque
6. Benjamin Franklin // Franklinian
7. Roland Barthes // Barthesian
8. Quentin Tarantino // Tarantinoesque
9. The Earl of Chesterfield // Chesterfieldian
10. Joseph Lancaster // Lancasterian
11. David Lynch // Lynchian

Queen Elizabeth I // Elizabethan

Writers pull out this term—coined for Queen Elizabeth I—when describing Elizabethan era (1558-1603) or anything reminiscent of its clothes, architecture, literature, and theater (among other things). In 1874’s An Introduction to the Study of Gothic Architecture, John Henry Parker wrote, “The Elizabethan style … is a mixture of the old English and the ruder Italian of the Renaissance.” This term is also used at times to refer to the styles and times of Queen Elizabeth II.

Alfred Hitchcock // Hitchcockian

The legendary director Alfred Hitchcock is, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, “best known for his works in the thriller genre, his mastery of suspense, and his exploration of themes including obsession, fear, and paranoia.” So anything described as Hitchcockian partakes of a similar psychological stew. The term started popping up in 1930, just a few years after the release of his third movie, a silent thriller called The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927). An October 1939 issue of the Barnard Bulletin said of one film, “The director has used many Hitchcockian devices to add interest to the story. The analogy of fox and murderer—both hunted … is particularly good.”

William Lloyd Garrison // Garrisonian

This word refers to a leading anti-slavery figure, W.L. Garrison, and the OED collects references from the later 1800s to the “Garrisonian antislavery movement” and “Garrisonian abolitionists” as well as “a follower or supporter of Garrison; an abolitionist.” No doubt Garrison would be proud to know his name became a synonym for such a good cause. (An earlier sense of the word, meaning “one who lives in a fort of garrison-town,” came courtesy of Scottish author Anne Grant—who was apparently the only one to use it.)

George Orwell // Orwellian

Language works in funny ways, and sometimes an eponym becomes a type of antonym, referring to the opposite of its inspiration. Author George Orwell’s name became synonymous with the type of dystopian and authoritarian society his works, including the novel 1989, warned about. Orwellian has been around since at least 1950, and Norman Mailer used the term in his 1959 book Advertisements for Myself to refer to some classic doublethink: “Virtually perfect Orwellian ambivalences—(War is Peace, Love is Hate, Ignorance is Knowledge).”

Jack Kirby // Kirbyesque

This term appears in no major dictionaries, but it’s a staple of comic book discourse—as it should be, since Kirby is known as the King of comics. Kirby, an artist and writer,  co-created the Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Ant-Man, and other Marvel characters, and he was the sole creator of the Eternals and the New Gods. When something is described as Kirbyesque, it usually involves bold composition, foreshortening, cosmic themes, and possibly square fingers, which Kirby was known for drawing. A Comics Journal review from 2020 shows the term in action, in a review of a comic by Eric Haven: “The book opens with a giant, Kirbyesque figure hovering in the sky above a restaurant called ‘Salad Barn’—imagine Galactus haunting a McDonalds—and this Kirby giant returns at the end of Cryptoid, keeping watch over the entire Earth, encased in a pod of pulsing energy.”

Benjamin Franklin // Franklinian

Benjamin Franklin was an eclectic fellow who dabbled in many fields—among his many awesome accomplishments were organizing a volunteer fire company, printing paper money, and inventing a number of things (including the armonica, which is sometimes called “history’s most dangerous musical instrument.”) The term Franklinian, though, seems to have applied mainly to his work in politics. The OED has examples referring to a Franklinian system and Franklinian theory, from the mid-1700s and early 1800s, respectively. Following a pattern of many of these terms, Franklinian could also be a noun referring to an acolyte of Franklin’s.

Roland Barthes // Barthesian

This term for discourse along the lines of philosopher Roland Barthes—who, as the OED notes, “is particularly noted for his development of structuralist and post-structuralist modes of cultural and textual analysis”— has been around since at least the early 1970s, and it still turns up in more recent times. A 1998 issue of London’s The Guardian used it, saying, “The author is dead. The Barthesian battle-cry of the 1960s is even more relevant today.” And a 2012 issue of New York Times Magazine refers to “The critique of mass culture—the Barthesian dissection of everything, no matter how trivial.”

Quentin Tarantino // Tarantinoesque

The OED defines Tarantinoesque as “Resembling or imitative of the films of Quentin Tarantino,” which are “characterized by graphic and stylized violence, non-linear storylines, cineliterate references, satirical themes, and sharp dialogue.” A 1994 issue of the Winnipeg Free Press is the first known use of the term: “This inelegant crime flick ... has the Tarantino-esque touches of violence and comedy. What it lacks is the same substance or style.” (The film in question? Hand Gun starring Treat Williams.)

The Earl of Chesterfield // Chesterfieldian

Mind your manners when reading this entry, for the fourth Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) was a renowned writer on etiquette. OED examples of the term Chesterfieldian from the 1700s and 1800s refer to “Chesterfieldian indecorums of laughter” and “Chesterfieldian etiquette.” Chesterfield was a spiritual forefather of the likes of Emily Post.

Joseph Lancaster // Lancasterian

Joseph Lancaster was a British educator who, as a 15-year-old, launched his teaching career by bringing some impoverished children into his own home to teach them how to read. (He got his father’s permission first.) With no funds to hire other teachers, he decided to create a system in which better students taught the weaker ones—a monitorial system. Lancasterian, then, means “Of or pertaining to Joseph Lancaster (1778–1838) and the monitorial form of instruction which he established in schools,” per the OED. Uses throughout the 1800s refer to Lancasterian schools, systems, and schemes. If you didn’t know what it stood for, this Lancasterian stuff might sound a little Draconian (to use a word inspired by Draco, an Athens lawmaker known for his harsh legal code).

David Lynch // Lynchian

The recently deceased David Lynch is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. His work is so distinctive that Lynchian became a term for anything reminiscent of the director, who, as the OED puts it, is “noted for juxtaposing surreal or sinister elements with mundane, everyday environments, and for using compelling visual images to emphasize a dreamlike quality of mystery or menace.” That mystery and menace suffuses films like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. A 1997 issue of The Kalamazoo Gazette partly describes Lynchian as “A convoluted, symbol-ridden story that pits pure-hearted, frequently dull good guys against psycho villains who are unwholesomely funny and charismatic.” In a 1996 issue of Premiere magazine, David Foster Wallace wrote, “An academic definition of Lynchian might be that the term ‘refers to a particular kind of irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way as to reveal the former’s perpetual containment within the latter.’ But like postmodern or pornographic, Lynchian is one of those Porter Stewart-type words that’s ultimately definable only ostensively-i.e., we know it when we see it.”

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