My mother's favorite word etymology - and I agree it's pretty nifty - was maverick

[conuly]

A maverick is, literally, an unbranded cow. Sam Maverick refused to brand his cattle. Mommy just could not get over that semantic drift.

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tarheel / rosin heel etymology (Note: historical quotes involve racist language and ideas)

Fat-tailed sheep with tail carts, and also the Bible, I guess?

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Comments

[calimac]

I learned that from Word People by Nancy Sorel, one of my childhood educational volumes. Covers eponyms from Bloomer and Braille to Watt and von Zeppelin. As I recall, it assumes that Chauvin was a real person, but nobody's perfect.

[conuly]

I learned as a kid that Braille went blind in both eyes because he spread infection from his injured eye to his well eye, but as an adult I found out that sometimes it just happens if you go blind in one eye that you'll lose sight in the other one too.

[ethelmay]

"The name was a common one in Napoleon's army, and if there was a real person at the base of the character in the play, he has not been certainly identified by etymologists, though memoirs of Waterloo (one published in Paris in 1822) mention "one of our principal piqueurs, named Chauvin, who had returned with Napoleon from Elba," which action implies the sort of loyalty displayed by the theatrical character." But yeah, basically, a character in an 1831 vaudeville. https://www.etymonline.com/word/chauvinism

[conuly]

Thank you!