epithet

—epithetic, epithetical, adj.

/ep"euh thet'/, n.

1. any word or phrase applied to a person or thing to describe an actual or attributed quality: "Richard the Lion-Hearted" is an epithet of Richard I.

2. a characterizing word or phrase firmly associated with a person or thing and often used in place of an actual name, title, or the like, as "man's best friend" for "dog."

3. a word, phrase, or expression used invectively as a term of abuse or contempt, to express hostility, etc.

[1570-80; < L epitheton epithet, adjective < Gk epítheton epithet, something added, equiv. to epi- EPI- + the- (var. s. of tithénai to put) + -ton neut. verbid suffix]

Syn. 1, 2. nickname, sobriquet, designation, appellation. 3. curse, insult, abuse, expletive, obscenity.

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▪ literature

      an adjective or phrase that is used to express the characteristic of a person or thing, such as Ivan the Terrible. In literature, the term is considered an element of poetic diction, or something that distinguishes the language of poetry from ordinary language. Homer used certain epithets so regularly that they became a standard part of the name of the thing or person described, as in “rosy-fingered Dawn” and “gray-eyed Athena.” The device was used by many later poets, including John Keats in his sonnet “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer”:

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne.

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