Chrysti The Wordsmith: Eponym - 4

Greetings verb of ours recently on Christie the wordsmith we've been looking at eponym or common words inspired by names mausoleum narcissism and Ferris wheel are eponym deriving from historical and mythological personalities. Today we'll plumb the biography of an 18th century Russian military leader who gave the English language one of its hundreds of eponym Grigory Alexandrovitch Potemkin was not only commander in chief of the Russian army in the late 18th century he was also a promoter and paramour of Catherine the Great. Eager to impress and delight his Empress Potemkin in about 1787 invited Katherine to tour province's newly acquired under his administration. What account has it that Grigory Potemkin constructed sham villages along Katherine's route each settlement designed to give the impression of prosperity. Some sources report Potemkin even stocked these outposts with so-called contented peasants which he shuffled from one village to the next. Just ahead

of Katherine's entourage today a Potemkin Village is a thing or situation which at first appears elaborate or impressive but in fact has little substance. Though this tale of the Potemkin Village is anecdotal it nevertheless lends verve to our language. The expression is colorful shorthand for describing an imposing facade constructed to disguise tawdriness. I'm Christie the wordsmith good Dave herbivores Christie the wordsmith a 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. Pseud web dot com.