Eponym
Where did that word come from? Look it up and follow it back, through Latin, Greek, all the way to Proto-Indo-European. A dictionary with the roots showing.
Formerly Wordroot. An eponym is a word named after a person, like sandwich or boycott: every one is a word-origin story, which is what this app tells.
Screenshots
How it works
Wiktionary (CC-BY-SA) is parsed into a graph of words and edges. WordNet fills gaps. No OED, no Etymonline, no etymology a model made up.
Twelve interface languages, thirty word languages. Etymology always comes from the English Wiktionary. Definitions come from your own language's Wiktionary first, then English.
- pipeline/: Python parser, stdlib only
- ios/: SwiftUI for iPhone and Mac
- web/: static site on the same data
- i18n/: one string catalog for every surface
Run
python3 scripts/gen-i18n.py # regenerate the i18n bundles after editing the catalog
python3 scripts/gen-i18n.py --check # verify they are current
python3 pipeline/parse.py # builds eponym.sqlite from English sample words
python3 pipeline/parse.py --lang de # ...or German, added alongside
python3 pipeline/test_parse.py
node scripts/test-web.mjs # web app + landing page: i18n and lookup
Terminal: swift build && ./.build/debug/eponym-tui etymology, see tui/
License
MIT © 2026 Joshua Trommel
