In ancient Egypt, the Sphinx is a male statue of a lion with the head of a human, sometimes with wings. Most sphinxes however represent a king in his appearance as the sun god.
An anacronym is an acronym or an abbreviation so old or familiar that no one remembers what its letters stand for, such as BASIC or COBOL . By the way, an acronym is not just any abbreviation. It's a word that is short for other words, usually using their initial letters.
An eponym is an imaginary or real personâs ânameâ put upon a place. An example of an eponym is Europe, whose ânameâ came from the mythological bull Europa. Now no longer will the root word onym run around anonymously, having no âname,â since at least you will not be fooled! anonymous: without a ânameâ.