EPITHET

name, epithet

(noun) a defamatory or abusive word or phrase

epithet

(noun) descriptive word or phrase

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Noun

epithet (plural epithets)

A term used to characterize a person or thing.

A term used as a descriptive substitute for the name or title of a person.

One of many formulaic words or phrases used in the Iliad and Odyssey to characterize a person, a group of people, or a thing.

An abusive or contemptuous word or phrase.

(taxonomy) A word in the scientific name of a taxon following the name of the genus or species. This applies only to formal names of plants, fungi and bacteria. In formal names of animals the corresponding term is the specific name.

Synonyms

• (descriptive substitute): cognomen

Verb

epithet (third-person singular simple present epithets, present participle epitheting, simple past and past participle epitheted)

(transitive) To term; to refer to as.

He was epitheted "the king of fools".

Source: Wiktionary

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Ep"i*thet, n. Etym: [L. epitheton, Gr. épithète. 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. 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.

Ep"i*thet, v. t.

Definition: To describe by an epithet. [R.] Never was a town better epitheted. Sir H. Wotton.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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