what's in a name
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Coined by William Shakespeare in 1597 in "Romeo and Juliet," act 2, scene 2:
- What's in a name? That which we call a rose,
- By any other name would smell as sweet.
Phrase
[edit]- Used to argue that something's name is arbitrary and does not give any information as to its qualities; the names of things do not affect what they really are.
Further reading
[edit]- “what's in a name”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.