From Sabrina Carpenter to J.Lo, when did everything get so code-coded?

March 13, 2026 — 5:00pm

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Freud has Freudian just as Byron has Byronic, and Kafka his Kafkaesque. Such terms are called eponymous adjectives, the funny stuff included, like Woolfish, Plathetic or plain old Audenary.

Away from writers, English can encapsulate anyone’s manner. If you win a race by keeping your feet, you are Bradbury-like. Bradbury-esque. Winning an event three years in a row makes you Makybe Divish. Maybe Makybe Divine.

Note the play in all this. Often the speaker builds words on the fly, treating language like an IKEA factory, toggling pieces into improv furniture. How fun to say that a coat hanger is Harbour Bridgy, or the Harbour Bridge is coat hangry. This is zany English making........

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