An eponym is a word whose source and meaning refers to a person. The person can be historical or fictional, living or dead. Perhaps the most famous eponym is pasteurize, which refers to Louis Pasteur, who pioneered the process of heating milk to a point where harmful microbes are killed without affecting the milk's taste or nutritional value. Other such words include sadistic, platonic and gerrymander. Braggadocio is a fine eponym that references a fictional character, Edmund Spencer's empty, boasting narcissist finding new life in modern English. America is itself an eponym.
Recently returned to Southern California after a wonderful summer and early fall in Maine, I was serenaded last night by a pack of coyotes, and the word “malthusian” came to mind, as that is a feature of the Los Angeles coyote population. "Malthusian" references English economist and pessimist, Thomas Robert Malthus, who espoused the notion that populations grow to the limit of the sustenance systems that support them, and that human population reductions only occur in the inevitable event of famine, war and disease. Malthus was a lot of fun at parties. The malthusian attribute is most certainly true of the coyote population in the Los Angeles suburbs, whose supply of jackrabbits and Jack Russells are the sole determinant for its density.
Though both plentiful and reviled, coyotes are protected here–in large part for this reason. As satisfying as slaked bloodlust over the loss of poor little Pookins might be, an open season on coyotes would achieve little. Grief-stricken, below-the-line movie professionals littering their front lawns with leg-hold traps and staggering through the streets of Woodland Hills with an air rifle has plenty of potential downside and no realistic upside because the practical result would be nil. The coyote population is malthusian, and even subsequent to an all-out rout would rebound to the degree the land could sustain them within a season or two. Malthusian.
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