epithet
pronunciation
How to pronounce epithet in British English:
UK [ˈepɪθet]
How to pronounce epithet in American English:
US [ˈɛpəˌθɛt]
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- Noun:
- a defamatory or abusive word or phrase
- descriptive word or phrase
Word Origin
- epithet
- epithet: [16] Etymologically, an epithet is a word that is ‘put on’ to or ‘added’ to another. The term comes from Greek epítheton, which meant literally ‘addition’, but was used by Greek grammarians for ‘adjective’. It was a derivative of epitithénai ‘put on, add’, a compound verb formed from the prefix epí- ‘on’ and tithénai ‘place, put’ (a relative of English do and theme). By the time the word reached English (via French or Latin) it had moved over from the vocabulary of the grammarian to that of the layman, in the sense ‘descriptive appellation’.=> do, theme
- epithet (n.)
- "descriptive name for a person or thing," 1570s, from Middle French épithète or directly from Latin epitheton (source also of Spanish epíteto, Portuguese epitheto, Italian epiteto), from Greek epitheton "an epithet; something added," noun use of adjective (neuter of epithetos) "attributed, added, assumed," from epitithenai "to add on," from epi "in addition" (see epi-) + tithenai "to put" (see theme). Related: Epithetic; epithetical.
Example
- 1. Epithet : a descriptive name or phrase used to characterize someone or somethellong .
- 2. For his own socialism the prognostication of the inevitability of socialism 's coming he claimed the epithet scientific .
- 3. But there was no mourning , just cheering for the so-called " death of a racial epithet " .
- 4. Some accounts have him assuming that grandiose epithet as early as 1949 .
- 5. In memory of the dream at gaya he was given the name of gadadhar , the " bearer of the mace " , an epithet of vishnu .