Chubblewig. Chuzzletoe. Chuzzlebog. Chuzzlewig. On loose sheets of paper, Charles Dickens tried out titles. Martin Sweezleden. Martin Sweezlebach. Martin Sweezlewag. Finally, triumphantly, on its own, on the reverse of the first sheet: Martin Chuzzlewit. Elsewhere, Dickens fiddled with a title for a book provisionally called “Mag’s Diversions”. Trotfield. Trotbury. Spankle. Wellbury. Copperboy. Flowerbury. Topflower. Magbury. Copperstone. Copperfield. He wrote it a second time. Copperfield. That’s my boy.
Dickens has given the OED more eponyms — words derived from the names of characters — than any other novelist. Bumble: a self-important minor official. Scrooge: a miser. Pecksniffian: hypocritical. Micawber: a feckless optimist. Gradgrind: a hard, cold, basher of facts. Podsnappery: complacent, blinkered self-satisfaction. Pickwickian: plump, jovial, all too hoodwinkable.
