Eponyms: M
~~~~~ M ~~~~~
| macadam | John Loudon McAdam (1756-1836), Scottish engineer |
| macadamia nut | John Macadam (1827-65), Australian scientist |
| Mach number | Ernst Mach (1838-1916), Austrian physicist and philosopher |
| Machiavellian | Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian political theorist |
| mackintosh | Charles Mackintosh (1760-1843), Scottish chemist |
| madeleine | Madeleine Paulmier, 19th century French pastrycook |
| Mae West | Mae West (1892-1980), American actress |
| Maginot line | André Maginot (1877-1932), French WWII minister of war |
| magnolia | Pierre Magnol (1638-1715), French botanist |
| malapropism | Mrs Malaprop, character in play The Rivals by Irish dramatist Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) |
| Malpighian corpuscle/layer | Marcello Malpighi (1628-94), Italian physiologist |
| Malthusian | Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), English economist |
| mansard roof | François Mansart (1598-1666), French classical architect |
| Maoism | Mao Tse-tung (Chinese, Mao Zedong; 1893-1976), Chinese revolutionary |
| marcel | Marcel Grateau (1852-1936), French hairdresser |
| March | Mars, Roman god of war |
| marigold | Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus |
| marmalade | Joao Marmalado (1450-1510), Portugal |
| martin | St Martin, 4th-century Bishop of Tours |
| martinet | Jean Martinet, French army officer during the reign of Louis XIV |
| Marxism | Karl Marx (1818-83), German political philosopher |
| masochism | Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836-95), Austrian novelist |
| maudlin | Mary Magdalen, who wept at the empty tomb after the resurrection of Jesus |
| Mauser | Peter Paul von Mauser (1838-1914) and brother Wilhelm (1834-82), German firearms inventors |
| mausoleum | King Mausolus, ruler of Caria in ancient Greece |
| maverick | Samuel Augustus Maverick (1803-70), American pioneer |
| Maxim gun | Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840-1916), US-born British inventor |
| maxwell | James Clerk Maxwell (1831-79), Scottish physicist |
| May | Maia, Roman goddess of spring and fertility |
| Melba toast | Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931), Australian soprano |
| mendelevium | Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev (1834-1907), Russian chemist |
| Mendel’s laws | Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-84), Austrian botanist |
| Mennonite | Menno Simons (1492-1559), Dutch religious reformer |
| mentor | Mentor, Odysseus’s loyal friend in Homer’s Odyssey |
| Mercalli scale | Giuseppe Mercalli (1850-1914), Italian volcanologist |
| Mercator projection | Gerardus Mercator (original name Gerhard Kremer; 1512-94), Flemish geographer |
| mesmerise | Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), Austrian physician and hypnotist |
| Messerschmitt | Willy Messerschmitt (1898-1978), German aircraft designer |
| methuselah | Methuselah, Old Testament patriarch (Genesis 5:27) |
| Mickey Finn | Mickey Finn, Chicago saloon-keeper at the end of the 19th century |
| mint | Juno, Roman goddess known by the title Moneta, ‘the admonisher’ |
| mithridatism | Mithridates VI, called the Great (c.132-63BC), king of Pontus |
| Möbius strip | August Ferdinand Möbius (1780-1868), German mathematician |
| mogul | Mogul, a member of the Muslim dynasty of rulers in 16th -17th century India |
| Mohs scale | Friedrich Mohs (1773-1839), German minerologist |
| molly | Comte Nicolas-François Mollien (1758-1850), French statesman |
| Molotov cocktail | Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (1890-1986), Soviet statesman |
| Montbretia | A. F. E. Coquebert de Montbret (1780-1801), French botanist |
| Montessori method | Maria Montessori (1870-1952), Italian physician |
| Montezuma’s revenge | Montezuma II (1480-1520), ruler of the Aztec Empire of Mexico |
| Moog synthesiser | Robert Arthur Moog (b.1934), American physicist, engineer and electrician |
| Moonie | Sun Myung Moon (original name Yong Myung Moon; b.1920), Korean industrialist |
| morgan | Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945), American physiologist |
| morphine | Morpheus, Greek god of dreams |
| Morrison shelter | Herbert Stanley Morrison (1888-1965), British statesman |
| Morse code | Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872), American artist and inventor |
| Mount Everest | Sir George Everest (1790-1866), English surveyor-general of India |
| Mrs Mop | Mrs Mopp, character in the BBC radio programme ITMA during WWII |