Vol. 5/2009 - Facultatea de Litere

3. Results
Structurally, mathematical eponyms are comparable with other specialist eponyms, i.e.,
they share similar structures with physical, chemical and medical eponyms, on the one hand
and reveal peculiarities pertaining to the mathematical terminology exclusively, on the other.
Our corpus of mathematical eponyms invites a double perspective, i.e., a first one dealing
with the structure proper of ‘set phrases’ and a second direction of analysis, in terms of the
nouns or adjectives accompanying names of mathematicians.
3.1. Structures of mathematical eponyms
This perspective distinguishes ‘one-word’ and ‘multi-word’ mathematical eponyms as
well as a possible classification of the set phrases, on account of the type of common word
they include.
3.1.1. ‘One-word’ mathematical eponyms
In mathematical texts, names of scientists recategorized into common words are rather
rare and they are usually the result of lexical ellipsis, since, for example, Hamiltonian is more
common than Hamiltonian operator, pfaffian is simpler than pfaffian property, and Gaussian is
the reduction Gaussian function/curve/distribution. Prefixation is present with the negative non-
in non-von Neumann processors, non-Wahlquist polynomial, but there have been recorded less
expected prefixations, such as hyperkahler manifold, hypohamiltonian graph. Suffixation has
contributed to create adjectives, such as Borromean (