catchy phrase for this idiom?

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

BCS wrote:
> Hello Bill,
> 
>> Kinda not the same thing if you ask me.  Eigen-blah generally refers
>> to something where you've captured the essence of something better by
>> representing it using a different set of basis functions.
>>
>> This doesn't seem to have much of anything to do with that.  Its just
>> identity or sameness of name.  That's not really what eigen thingys
>> are about.
>>
> 
> An Eigen value for a matrix M is a vector V sutch that M x V = V (IIRC)
> 
> 

That's an eigenvector. An eigenvalue is a multiplier alpha such that M x 
V = alpha V.

"Eigen" in German means "its own", proper. I previously liked "the 
eponymous trick" as it had a nice self-recurrence flavor, but I like 
"eigentemplates" better.


Andrei