Allusions?

Posted by ESC on March 19, 2003

In Reply to: allusions? posted by Harikrishnan Menon on March 19, 2003

: : Pollyanna = an optimist, Philistine = an ignorant person...

: : Are these called allusions? If not, what are they called? Where can I find more such words or expressions? Thanks.

:
: They're called eponyms. An eponym is a word derived from someone's name. Try running it through a search engine - you'll get plenty of links.

I was thinking that they could also be called literary allusions since "Pollyanna" is a book and "Philistines" are mentioned in the Bible.