Burke

 

"to murder by suffocation or strangulation" (originally, leaving as little trace as possible, for the purpose of selling the corpse for disscetion in the laboratory)

From the name of William Burke, a villain of vocabulary.

Burke was hanged for murder in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1829.  He and his partnre in crime, William Hare,  lived in a rather seedy section of Edinburgh in the early 19th century.  One evening a visitor to their rooms happened to pass away.   Rather than go to the trouble of disposing of his mortal remains in the traditional manner, the pair carted the corpse off to the University and sold it for the use of medical students.  The receipt of seven pounds sterling  for as otherwise useless body set the two men on the road of crime.  They began enticing other down-and-outers to their rooms with the promise of liquid refreshment and not willing to wait for the unlikely event of their dying of natural causes, they carefully smothered them so as to leave them intact for dissection in the school laboratory.  Fifteen or more unfortunate wayfarers  were thus sacrificed to science and avarice before the two murderers were caught and tried.  The Times of London on the day of the execution, 2 February 1829, contained this item:

As soon as the executioner proceeded to his duty, the cries of "Burke him, Burke him, give him no rope," were vociferated.  "Burke Hare too."

 

Other words from people's names include:

bowdlerize, dunce, nicotine, lynch, macabre, sadism, chauvinism

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