Nominative determinism is the hypothesis that people are drawn to professions that fit their name. The term was first used in the magazine New Scientist in 1994, after its humorous Feedback column mentioned a book on polar explorations by Daniel Snowman and an article on urology by researchers named Splatt and Weedon. The hypothesis had been suggested by psychologist Carl Jung, citing as an example Sigmund Freud (German for 'joy'), who studied pleasure. A few recent empirical studies have indicated that certain professions are disproportionately represented by people with appropriate surnames, though the methods of these studies have been challenged. One explanation for nominative determinism is the theory of implicit egotism, which states that humans have an unconscious preference for things they associate with themselves. An alternative explanation is genetic: an ancestor might have been named Smith or Taylor according to their occupation, and the genes they passed down might correlate to aptitudes for those professions.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1800: War of the Second Coalition: French forces won a victory at the Battle of Neuburg, ending Austrian control over the River Danube. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Neuburg_%281800%29> 1905: First Russian Revolution: The crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin began a mutiny against their officers. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Potemkin> 1950: Korean War: Five North Korean aircraft attacked an American air convoy above Suwon Air Base in the first air engagement of the Korean War. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Battle_of_South_Korea> 2015: Ignition of corn starch caused a dust fire at a water park in New Taipei City, Taiwan, killing 12 people and injuring more than 400 others. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_New_Taipei_water_park_fire> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: allegory: 1. (uncountable, rhetoric) The use of symbols which may be interpreted to reveal a hidden, broader message, usually a moral or political one, about real-world issues and occurrences; also, the interpretation of such symbols. 2. (countable, by extension) 3. A picture, story, or other form of communication in which one or more characters, events, or places are used to reveal a hidden, broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. 4. A character or thing which symbolically represents someone or something else; an emblem, a symbol. 5. (mathematics, category theory) A category that retains some of the structure of the category of binary relations between sets, representing a high-level generalization of that category. 6. (archaic) Synonym of allegorize. 7. (transitive) To interpret (a picture, story, or other form of communication) to reveal a hidden, broader message about real-world issues and occurrences. 8. (transitive) To create an allegory (noun sense 2.1) from (a character, an event or situation, etc.); also, to use one or more symbols to depict (a hidden, broader message about real-world issues and occurrences). 9. (transitive, chiefly religion) Followed by away: to treat (something) as allegorical or symbolic rather than as truth. 10. (intransitive) To interpret an allegory. 11. (intransitive) To create or use allegory. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/allegory> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: It is happening here. Democracy in America has been a series of narrow escapes. We may be running out of luck, and no one is coming to save us. For that, we have only ourselves --Bill Moyers <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Moyers> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe write to: [email protected] Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
