Book Reviews

Abstract

B. Beolens, M. Watkins, M. Grayson (eds.). 2009. The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, i-xiii + 574 pp. ISBN-13 978-0-8018-9304-9 and ISBN-10 0-8018-9304-6, price (hardbound), $65.00. Dictionaries attract an eclectic audience and have enjoyed a long and distinguished history ranging from early classics, such as Samuel Johnson's (1755) Dictionary of the English Language through your grandfather'sFunk & Wagnalls, to today'smultiple online incarnations. Recently dictionaries specific to an increasing array of fields and developing bodies of knowledge have appeared. This is hardly surprising, given the increasing level of specialization in all fields of science. In the natural sciences a few broadly used dictionaries are of high utility. These include dictionaries of biology, zoology, and other disciplines (Abercrombie et al. 1973; Allaby 2003; Craciun and Craciun 1976; Walker 1989). The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals is the 1st of its kind that explains who all those folks were who have scientific or vernacular names of mammals named after them. An important distinction should 1st be made between etymology and eponyms. The 1st refers to the origin of a word, explaining the evolution of the “etymon” (Greek for truth). Eponym also has Greek roots (eponymos or eponumos), including the prefix epi = on + onyma or onoma = name. To illustrate this distinction consider the etymology of the words Columbus, America, and Athens. Columbus Day is an eponym for Christopher Columbus, America is an eponym for Amerigo Vespucci, and the capital of Greece is an eponym for the goddess Athena. In the case of mammals common or vernacular and scientific names of species frequently honor a person and therefore are eponyms. The term patronym is frequently used in this sense, but it is restricted more properly to family names derived from paternal ancestors. Interestingly, occasional eponyms are indeed patronyms. In describing Anoura …