Monday, November 08, 2004

Aptronym

Aptronym is a word coined by Anu Garg (of Wordsmith fame). The definition given for
Aptronym is:

aptronym (AP-troh-NIM) noun
A name that is especially suited to the profession of its owner.

When I first came across this word, my first thought was that perhaps there would be very very few aptronyms around. But after reading one of Anu Garg's newsletters, I was simply astounded. Sample this:
A hair specialist called Dan Druff
A dentist called Dr. Tuthaker
Urologist named Dr Richard(Dick) Tapper
A company making belts called A.Buckle and Co
An optometrist called Dr Steven I. Ball
Tennis star called Margaret Court
Poet named William Wordsworth
A footballer called Jim Kiick
and lots more.....

Infact, medical librarians have come up with a list of medical Aptronyms (http://educ.ahsl.arizona.edu/mla/doctor.htm).

Lets give this concept a fresh twist, and consider inaptronyms, where the name of the person is the exact opposite of what he/she does, e.g ophthalmologist called Dr Blinder.
Lets further consider famous names closer to home, and you would be surprised to see how many such names turn up.

A sometimes indecisive non-bihari Atal Behari Vajpayee
A painfully slow batsman called Sanjay Bangar(read Banger)
A person who tried in vain to obtain one of the country's more powerful posts Sharad Pawar
The not-so-sweet Rabri Devi
The not-so-tender Phoolan Devi
The anything but soft Mulayam Singh
and this last one takes the cake (note, South Indians would understand it better!!)
Sharmila(read Sharam illa) Tagore as censor Board Chief!!!! :)

If you guys come up with some more do share it with me!! :)


3 Comments:

Blogger Somu said...

:)) Simply superb...lemme rack my brains n try to get a few too :-)

2:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

8:59 AM  
Blogger Seemantini said...

Interesting.

1:49 AM  

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