epithet

a word or phrase applied to a person to describe a quality; nickname; sobriquet; designation; a curse or insult
Not to be confused with:epitaph – inscription on a tomb or mortuary monument; words in praise of the deceased

ep·i·thet

E0184300 (ĕp′ə-thĕt′)n.1. a. A term used to characterize a person or thing, such as rosy-fingered in rosy-fingered dawn or the Great in Catherine the Great.b. A term used as a descriptive substitute for the name or title of a person, such as The Great Emancipator for Abraham Lincoln.2. A disparaging or abusive word or phrase.3. Biology A word in the scientific name of an organism following the name of the genus and denoting a species, subspecies, variety, or cultivar, as sativa in Lactuca sativa.

[Latin epitheton, from Greek, neuter of epithetos, added, attributed, from epitithenai, epithe-, to add to : epi-, epi- + tithenai, to place; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]

ep′i·thet′ic, ep′i·thet′i·cal adj.

epithet

(ˈɛpɪˌθɛt) na descriptive word or phrase added to or substituted for a person's name: "Lackland" is an epithet for King John. [C16: from Latin epitheton, from Greek, from epitithenai to add, from tithenai to put] ˌepiˈthetic, ˌepiˈthetical adj

ep•i•thet

(ˈɛp əˌθɛt)

n. 1. a characterizing word or phrase added to or used in place of the name of a person or thing. 2. a word, phrase, or expression used invectively as a term of abuse or contempt. [1570–80; < Latin epitheton epithet, adjective < Greek epítheton epithet, something added] ep`i•thet′ic, ep`i•thet′i•cal, adj.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	epithet - a defamatory or abusive word or phrasenamecalumniation, calumny, defamation, hatchet job, traducement, obloquy - a false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone's words or actionssmear word - an epithet that can be used to smear someone's reputation; "he used the smear word `communist' for everyone who disagreed with him"
	2.	epithet - descriptive word or phrasecharacterisation, characterization, delineation, depiction, word picture, word-painting, picture - a graphic or vivid verbal description; "too often the narrative was interrupted by long word pictures"; "the author gives a depressing picture of life in Poland"; "the pamphlet contained brief characterizations of famous Vermonters"

epithet

noun1. name, title, description, tag, nickname, designation, appellation, sobriquet, moniker or monicker (slang) players who fitted their manager's epithet of `headless chickens'2. curse, obscenity, blasphemy, swear word, imprecation a stream of obscene epithets

epithet

noun1. The word or words by which one is called and identified:appellation, appellative, cognomen, denomination, designation, name, nickname, style, tag, title.Slang: handle, moniker.2. A profane or obscene term:blasphemy, curse, expletive, oath, swearword.Informal: cuss.

Translations

эпитет

Epithet

a poetic attribute, a type of trope. Epithets are usually adjectives (sladostnyi napev, “sweet melody”); in Russian literary criticism, however, the category is extended to include adverbs (goriacho liubit’, “to love hotly”), nouns (vesel’ia shum, “noise of mirth”) numerals (pervyi drug, “first [best] friend”), and verbs (zhelanie zabyt’sia, “desire to forget”). Unlike common attributes, which distinguish some object from many others (tikhii zvon, “faint pealing”), an epithet may single out one special quality of the object (gordyi kon’, “proud steed”) or function as a metaphor, investing the object with the properties of another object (zhivoi sled, “living trace”).

The epithet evolved in oral poetry in various ways: as a generalization of a standard attribute typifying an object (rusaia kosa, “light brown braid”; belaia bereza, “white birch”), as a means of fixing a historical relation (sedelyshko cherkasskoe, “Circassian saddle”; the “Arabian steed” of French medieval poetry), and as an idealization (laskovyi kniaz’ Vladimir, “gentle Prince Vladimir”). The development of a personal poetic diction expanded the system of stock epithets used in folk poetry. The attributes of natural phenomena were applied to persons (iasnoe solntse, “bright sun” for iasnyi vzgliad, “bright visage”), and syn-esthetic epithets were created by combining different categories of sensation (kholodnyi tsvet, “cold color”; iasnyi zvuk, “clear sound”). The desire to emphasize an impression led to repetition (ukrasno ukrashennaia zemlia Russkaia, “beauteously beautiful Russian land”) or the fusion of different roots (Homer’s “swift-footed Achilles”; shirokoshumnye dubrovy, “wide-rustling oak groves”).

Professional literature eventually abandoned the stock epithets of folk poetry, which in extreme cases stripped words of their fundamental semantics (Naostri moiu ostruiu sabliu!, “Sharpen my sharp saber!”), to develop personal, striking, and unique epithets (A. S. Pushkin’s dam obdumannyi nariad, “ladies’ calculated attire”). Epithets may thus reflect an author’s style, historical period, and literary school (sladkoglasnyi pevets, “sweet-voiced singer,” and khladnyi prakh, “cold ashes,” are typical of sentimentalism; zheltaia zaria, “yellow dawn,” and snezhnoe vino, “snowy wine,” figure as elements in A. Blok’s poetic system).

REFERENCES

Veselovskii, A. N. Istoricheskaia poetika. Leningrad, 1940. Pages 73–93.
Zhirmunskii, V. M. “K voprosu ob epitete.” In his collection Teoriia lit-ry, poetika, stilistika: Izbr. trudy. Leningrad, 1977.
Tomashevskii, B. V. Stilistika i stikhoslozhenie. Leningrad, 1959. Pages 200–08.
Ozerov, L. “Oda epitetu.” Voprosy literatury, 1972, no. 4.

V. S. BAEVSKII

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Synonyms for epithet

noun name

Synonyms

noun curse

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Synonyms for epithet

noun the word or words by which one is called and identified

Synonyms

noun a profane or obscene term

Synonyms

Synonyms for epithet

noun a defamatory or abusive word or phrase

Synonyms

Related Words

noun descriptive word or phrase

Related Words