Chrysti The Wordsmith: Eponym - 5

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. Eponym is our words derived from the names of historical or mythical personalities. On a recent wordsmith edition for example we investigated Ferris wheel the eponym of its inventor George Washington Gail Ferris American steel engineer. Today we'll look at a most delightful but obscure eponym the adjective Barmah sidle. The story behind this word takes place in the Tales of the Arabian Nights a collection of stories in Arabic. One evening in the city of Baghdad a beggar asked for all MPs at the door of a great house. The householder a prince named Barmah side welcomed the beggar to his table but produced a meal of empty dishes. The host pretended to eat and enjoy the imaginary meal of grouse and savory rice and stew and bread. The beggar joined in the game chewing and swallowing and complimenting Barmah sighed on his generosity. When the Prince pretended to pour wine into empty cups the beggar pretended to drink it and after many

swallows staggered to his host and feigned drunkenness and punched him hard in the face. Barm aside was pleased at the beggar's clever response to the evening's prank and immediately produced real food for his visitor to eat. The prince loaned his name to the language in the eponym Barmah side meal one that looks delicious but doesn't live up to expectations. The adjective is Barmah sidle. I'm Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.