Page 422 - Word Power Made Easy: The Complete Handbook for Building a Superior Vocabulary

Brief Intermission Seven

SOME INTERESTING DERIVATIONS

PEOPLE WHO MADE OUR LANGUAGE

Bloomers

Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller invented them in 1849, and showed a working model to a
famous women’s rights advocate, Amelia J. Bloomer. Amelia was fascinated by the idea of
garments that were both modest (they then reached right down to the ankles) and
convenient—and promptly sponsored them.…

Boycott

Charles C. Boycott was an English land agent whose di cult duty it was to collect high
rents from Irish farmers. In protest, the farmers ostracized him, not even allowing him to
make purchases in town or hire workers to harvest his crops.

Marcel

Marcel was an ingenious Parisian hairdresser who felt he could improve on the button
curls popular in 1875. He did, and made a fortune.

Silhouette

Finance Minister of France just before the Revolution, Etienne de Silhouette advocated the
simple life, so that excess money could go into the treasury instead of into luxurious living.
And the profile is the simplest form of portraiture, if you get the connection.

Derrick

A seventeenth-century English hangman, Derrick by name, hoisted to their death some of
the most notorious criminals of the day.

Sadist