Keepers of legacy

Four men who lent their names to everyday words

- ANJULY MATHAI

When you come to the end of your stint on this planet, how do you know whether your life has amounted to anything? That thing called 'legacy' is so tenuous. Who decides your legacy anyway? For most of us, our children and grandchildren are the custodians of our legacy. At centenary celebrations and memorial services, they will recount our life and achievements in technicolour—how we always lived life to the full, how we liberally lent to the poor or how we had a great sense of humour (We probably didn’t. People almost always exaggerate their ancestors’ achievements.) But by the time we reach the fourth or fifth generation, the technicolour starts fading. How many of us know our great-great grandfather's name, let alone sense of humour?

But this is not the case for some very lucky people, who have everything from roads to rodents named after them. There are asteroids named after astrophysicists and birds and beetles named after celebrities. Long after Beyonce's time, the horse flies named after her will live on, carrying forward her legacy.

But Sumanto Chattopadhyay, creator of The English Nut, an award-winning social media channel, is not interested in celebrity beetles. He is interested in words. Most people are addicted to something in life—travel, alcohol, fitness or adventure. There are few, however, who get their kick from etymology and grammar. For Chattopadhyay, vocabulary is his vodka. That's why he's written a book on the origin of words and phrases.