Word Mine is yours! Every Monday you'll find three (maybe more, if I feel like it) scrumptious words linked to a theme. I hope these words will help to add a sparkle to your week!

An eponym is a word coined after someone.

MILQUETOAST (noun) [MILK-toest']

1. a person of meek or timid disposition: "Is there no middle ground between macho and milquetoast single men?"

adjective form: milquetoasty

Origin:
Approximately 1938; from Caspar Milquetoast, a timid comic-strip character created in 1924 by Harold Tucker Webster.

In action:
"Soccer players, meantime, make do with shin pads tucked into their socks. So, yes, they will writhe around on the ground after a collision. And sometimes, yes, they are faking it. Often, though, it's the inevitable result of boot meeting body part without the benefit of six inches of padding.

And for anyone who wants to argue that American footballers need shock absorbers because soccer tackles are milquetoast by comparison, check out the crunching blitzes of rugby players."

Mark Gilbert. "Op/Ed: Seven Reasons Why U.S. Will Never Embrace Soccer," Bloomberg.com (July 10, 2006).

"Says Blender: 'It's not as though Chicago were exactly hardcore thugs before he became their focal point, but under Cetera's dictatorship they purged their jazzier impulses to concentrate full-bore on self-pitying schmaltz like 'If You Leave Me Now' and 'Hard to Say I'm Sorry.' That was merely a warm-up for a solo career so flaccid that on his Amy Grant duet, 'The Next Time I Fall,' the milquetoast Christian pop balladeer sounds tough by comparison."

Jaweed Kaleem. "Blender magazine names the 'Top 25 Biggest Wusses Ever'," [A+E Interactive Blog] San Jose Mercury News (July 24, 2006).

TITIAN (TISH-uhn) noun

  A bright reddish or golden auburn color.

[After 16th century Italian painter Titian, from the frequent
use of the color (especially for the hair) in his paintings.]

 "The titian-haired sleuth (Nancy Drew) has left her mark on American
  womanhood for generations now."
  Marjorie Kehe; The Titian-haired Sleuth All American Girls Love;
  The Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts); Oct 4, 2005.

DARBY AND JOAN (DAHR-bee and joan) noun

  A devoted old couple leading a quiet, uneventful life.

[After a couple named in a 18th century poem in The Gentleman's Magazine
(London).]

In 1735 Henry Woodfall, a printer's apprentice, wrote a ballad titled
"The joys of love never forgot: a song" about a happily married elderly
couple. His inspiration for those characters was his own boss John Darby
and his wife Joan:

  "Old Darby, with Joan by his side,
  You've often regarded with wonder:
  He's dropsical, she is sore-eyed,
  Yet they're never happy asunder ..."

As you can imagine, he wrote this poem after Darby's death. This poem
in turn became an inspiration for follow-up poems and eventually Darby
and Joan became a metaphor. In the UK, clubs for old people are still
called Darby and Joan clubs.

  "On the shores of holy Lake Manosarovar there is a nameless hotel run by
  a very elderly couple, a sort of Tibetan Darby and Joan."
  Karen Swenson; At Tibetan Hotels, Don't Expect the Light To Be Left On;
  The Wall Street Journal (New York); Dec 4, 2001.

JEREMIAH (jer-uh-MY-uh) noun

  A person who complains continually, has a gloomy attitude,
  or one who warns about a disastrous future.

[After Jeremiah, a Hebrew prophet during the seventh and sixth centuries
BCE who prophesied the fall of the kingdom of Judah and whose writings
are collected in the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations.]

 "Having been a jeremiah for so many years, mainly through the pages of
  the Guardian but also via his own immensely popular website, Monbiot
  has now turned his mind to what, precisely, can be done to halt global
  warming."
  Stephen Price; A Wake-up Call For the Human Race; The Sunday Business
  Post (Dublin, Ireland); Oct 8, 2006.

CICERONE (sis-uh-RO-nee) noun

  A tour guide.

[After Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), the Roman statesman, orator,
and writer, who was known for his knowledge and eloquence. He's one of
the rare people who have given two eponyms to the English language.
Another word coined after his name is ciceronian, meaning marked by ornate
language, expansive flow, and forcefulness of expression.]

 "Could one entirely rely upon a reporter who assured his readers that
  the people of Valencia in general were perfidious, vindictive, sullen,
  mistrustful, fickle, treacherous and empty of all good? Laugh with him,
  certainly, in the hearty old days of political incorrectness, but have
  reservations about him as a cicerone."
  Jan Morris; Travel Lit's Novel Pursuit; The Nation (New York); Oct 6, 1997.