Popeye

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fictional muscular sailor with a squint and a corncob pipe, famous for gaining super strength from eating spinach in animated cartoons
2. The comic cartoon sailor character created by E.C. Segar who becomes strong after downing canned spinach
3. A squinting, pipe-smoking cartoon seaman whose brawny strength comes from eating spinach and who battles his rival Bluto

Etymology: Popeye is a compound of "pop" and "eye," and the name fits the character's most famous feature. Popeye the Sailor, created by Elzie Crisler Segar in the comic strip "Thimble Theatre," first appeared in 1929. The surname had a long history before Segar's sailor: "pop-eye" was already an English term for a person with bulging or protruding eyes, the sense that sticks to the cartoon's squinting, pipe-chewing face. The word's shape is plain, but its use as a proper name is what made it famous. Segar gave the sailor a name that children could picture immediately, and it outlived the comic strip itself, turning into a general label for the character and his spinach-fueled strength.