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Epithet - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Epithet : (noun)
1: a defamatory or abusive word or phrase; "sticks and stones
may break my bones but names can never hurt me" [syn: name]
2: descriptive word or phrase
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Epithet : \Ep"i*thet\, v. t.
To describe by an epithet. [R.]
Never was a town better epitheted. --Sir H.
Wotton.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Epithet : \Ep"i*thet\, n. [L. epitheton, Gr. ?, fr. ? added, fr. ?
to add; 'epi` upon, to _ ? to put, place: cf. F.
['e]pith[`e]te. See Do.]
1. An adjective expressing some quality, attribute, or
relation, that is properly or specially appropriate to a
person or thing; as, a just man; a verdant lawn.
A prince [Henry III.] to whom the epithet
``worthless'' seems best applicable. --Hallam.
2. Term; expression; phrase. ``Stiffed with epithets of
war.'' --Shak.
Syn: Epithet, Title.
Usage: The name epithet was formerly extended to nouns which
give a title or describe character (as the ``epithet
of liar''), but is now confined wholly to adjectives.
Some rhetoricians, as Whately, restrict it still
further, considering the term epithet as belonging
only to a limited class of adjectives, viz., those
which add nothing to the sense of their noun, but
simply hold forth some quality necessarily implied
therein; as, the bright sun, the lofty heavens, etc.
But this restriction does not prevail in general
literature. Epithet is sometimes confounded with
application, which is always a noun or its equivalent.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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