| 释义 |
▪ I. epithet, n.|ˈɛpɪθɛt|
Forms: 6–7 epithete, -thite, epethite, (6 epithat, epythite, -the), 6– epithet.
[ad. L. epitheton, a. Gr. ἐπίθετον adj., neut. of ἐπίθετος attributed, f. ἐπιτιθέναι, f. ἐπί upon + τιθέναι to place. Cf. Fr. epithète.
The Gr. word was used by grammarians for ‘adjective’, but they did not distinguish between adjs. and descriptive ns. in apposition with a name.]
1. An adjective indicating some quality or attribute which the speaker or writer regards as characteristic of the person or thing described.
1588Fraunce Lawiers Log. Ded., Your two last Epithetes wherein you disgrace the law with rudenesse and barbarisme. 1612Dekker If it be not good, etc. Wks. 1873 III. 305 T'expresse..whose vilenes, there's no epithite. a1661Fuller Worthies (1840) II. 240 His epithets were pregnant with metaphors. 1718Lady M. W. Montague Lett. II. xlix. 56, I admired the exact geography of Homer..almost every epithet he gives to a mountain or plain is still just for it. 1788Reid Aristotle's Log. iv. §6. 95 The epithets of pure and modal are applied to syllogisms as well as to propositions. 1839Thirlwall Greece I. 173 The term barbarous..in Homer..is only used as an epithet of language. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola i. v, Hollow, empty—is the epithet justly bestowed on Fame.
¶b. nonce-use. That which gives an epithet to.
1615Chapman Odyss. i. 154 To Sparta, then, and Pylos, where doth beat Bright Amathus, the flood, and epithet To all that kingdom.
2. A significant appellation.
(A spurious word ‘Epithite, a plotter, traitor’, given in mod. Dicts., originated in a misunderstanding of quot. 1607.)
1579G. Harvey Letter-bk. (1884) 61 Christen them by names and epithites nothing agreable or appliante to the thinges themselves. 1607G. Wilkins Miseries Inforst Marriage F iij, Sir Will. Like to a swine. Lord Faulconb. A perfect Epythite: hee feeds on draffe, And wallowes in the mire. 1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. i. v, Many of these trees..have epithites contrary to the nature of them as they grow in England. 1683Pettus Fleta Min. ii. 2 Before we fix our Title or Epithite to the Master of this Science. 1728Morgan Algiers I. vi. 201 He assumed the proud Epithet of Sultan or Monarch of Tunis and all Barbary. 1862Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. II. iv. 129 We..employ the French term of ennui, for want of an equally appropriate epithet in English.
†3. Used for: A term, phrase, expression. Obs.
1599Shakes. Much Ado v. ii. 67 Suffer loue! a good epithite; I do suffer loue indeede; for I loue thee against my will. 1604― Oth. i. i. 14 A bumbast Circumstance Horribly stufft with Epithites of warre.
4. attrib.
1874Sayce Compar. Philol. vi. 227 The epithet-period points to a vast series of bygone ages. 1884Manch. Exam. 26 May 3/1 To increase the epithet power of our tongue in coining adjectives.
Add:[1.] b. An offensive or derogatory expression used of a person; an abusive term; a profanity. Cf. epitheted ppl. a. c.
[1712Arbuthnot Lewis Baboon turned Honest i. 2 Blockhead, Dunce, Ass, Coxcomb, were the best Epithets he gave poor John.] 1818[see psalm-singer s.v. psalm n. 3]. 1848‘D. Knickerbocker’ Hist. N.Y. (1850) I. iv. iv. 214 Some dozen..mis-shapen, nine-cornered Dutch oaths and epithets which crowded at once into his gullet. 1864[see illegitimacy n.]. 1896Belloc Frog in Bad Child's Bk. Beasts 46 The Frog is justly sensitive To epithets like these. 1929W. Cuppy How to be Hermit 258 One of them recently read me my horoscope with a richness of epithet that was supposed to have died out with the Elizabethan pamphleteers and a few of the prettier duchesses at the court of Charles the Second. 1981S. Wentworth Say Hello to Yesterday v. 103 ‘You louse! You swine!’ With every epithet she hit out at him blindly.
▪ II. epithet, v.|ˈɛpɪθɛt|
[f. prec. n.]
trans. †a. To add (a word) as an epithet (obs.). b. To apply an epithet to. c. To term, entitle.
1628Walton in Reliq. Wotton (1672) 566 Never was a town better Epithited. 1637H. Sydenham Serm. ii. 136 Ecclesiasticall honour (Episcopall he epithetes). 1650Fuller Pisgah iv. Ep. Ded., Francis your Avus, whose death I would epithete Untimely. 1659― Appeal li. 7 Mr. Fox hath now the casual favour of my Pen to be epithited Reverent. 1698Christ Exalted 88 Here are Whisperings, Surmises, Slanders and Reproaches, and these epethited with being private, evil, insinuated and clandestine. 1882G. Macdonald in Sunday Mag. XI. 80/2 Woeful Miss Witherspin, as Mark had epitheted her. |