Crossword clues for epithet
epithet
- Peter the Great, e.g
- Word of contempt
- Descriptive nickname
- Disparaging nickname
- Disparaging term
- Defamatory phrase
- Spike or Stinky
- Phrase of characterization
- Phrase expressing some quality of a person or thing
- No-no in a safe space
- Man's best friend, e.g
- Maligning moniker
- Insult, perhaps
- Characterizing word
- "The Unready," for Ethelred
- "The Man," for Stan Musial
- "The Great" or "the Terrible," say
- "The Great" or "The Fat," e.g
- Hurled word
- Nickname
- Ethelred the Unready, for one
- "The Conqueror," e.g.
- The Georgia Peach or the Sultan of Swat, e.g.
- "The Great" or "the Terrible"
- A defamatory or abusive word or phrase
- Descriptive word or phrase
- Disparaging word
- "America the Beautiful" is one
- Descriptive name
- Abusive expression
- Mining Derbyshire pit he thought to provide descriptive phrase
- English mine with the odd descriptive term
- Adjective expressing a characteristic quality
- Shirt’s back occupied by most of succinct descriptive comment
- Record one article: time for a descriptive word
- Ultimately, prerogative mine to assume the nickname
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Epithet \Ep"i*thet\, n. [L. epitheton, Gr. ?, fr. ? added, fr. ? to add; 'epi` upon, to + ? to put, place: cf. F.
-
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. -
Term; expression; phrase. ``Stuffed with epithets of war.''
--Shak.Syn: Epithet, Title.
Usage: 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.
Epithet \Ep"i*thet\, v. t. To describe by an epithet. [R.]
Never was a town better epitheted.
--Sir H.
Wotton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"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.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A term used to characterize a person or thing. 2 A term used as a descriptive substitute for the name or title of a person. 3 An abusive or contemptuous word or phrase.
WordNet
n. a defamatory or abusive word or phrase; "sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never hurt me" [syn: name]
descriptive word or phrase
Wikipedia
An epithet (from epitheton, neut. of epithetos, "attributed, added") is a sobriquet, or a descriptive term (word or phrase), accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It can be described as a glorified nickname. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It can also be a descriptive title: for example, Suleiman the Magnificent or Władysław I the Elbow-high.
In contemporary use, epithet often refers to an abusive, defamatory, or derogatory phrase, such as a racial or animal epithet. This use as a euphemism is criticized by Martin Manser and other prescriptive linguists.
An epithet in taxonomic nomenclature is a word or phrase ( epithet) in the name of an organism. It can be:
- a specific epithet:
- the second part of a species name in binomial nomenclature in any branch of biology
- in botany, the second part of a botanical name
- Specific epithet (zoology), also called the specific name, meaning the second part of the species name or binomen
- the second part of a species name in binomial nomenclature in any branch of biology
- a genus epithet
- a subgenus epithet
- in botanical nomenclature:
- a section epithet
- a series epithet
- a variety epithet
- a forma epithet
- in horticulture:
- a Group epithet, for plants within a species that share characteristics
- a grex epithet for cultivated orchids, according to their parentage
- a cultivar epithet
Usage examples of "epithet".
The very name of the patriarch may have suggested this triple epithet, obscure as to its meaning, but evidently formed on the principle of Cymric alliteration.
And he gave ear to the music, delighting himself in rich imagery, in rare epithets, in the luminous metaphors, the exquisite harmonies, the subtle refinements which distinguished his metrical style and the mysterious artifices of the endecasyllabic verse learned from the admirable poets of the fourteenth century, and more especially from Petrarch.
Attila equalled the hostile ravages of Tamerlane, either the Tartar or the Hun might deserve the epithet of the Scourge of God.
Isis, and, generally speaking, all the feudal goddesses, were the chiefs of their local Enneads, is proved by the epithets applied to them, which represent them as having independent creative power by virtue of their own unaided force and energy, like the god at the head of the Heliopolitan Ennead.
The fact that Nit, Isis, and, generally speaking, all the feudal goddesses, were the chiefs of their local Enneads, is proved by the epithets applied to them, which represent them as having independent creative power by virtue of their own unaided force and energy, like the god at the head of the Heliopolitan Ennead.
Govind, who bestowed on himself and his followers the title of Singh, or lion-hearted, hitherto an epithet appropriated in this connection by the Rajpoot nobility, devoted the strong energies of his vigourous and daring nature to the purpose of establishing the faith of Nanuk by force of arms.
Larry was sitting in his sandpile crying, Joe was doubled over on the ground gasping, Jimmy Ortega was waning about his arm, and Benny Maestas, his face covered with blood, his eyes staring at a damp switchblade knife in his hand that he thought maybe he had stuck into one of those bastards, was propped against a basket pole, snarling epithets.
The epithets we apply to God only recall either visible or intellectual symbols to the eye or mind.
Moldavia and Wallachia was occupied by the Antes, a Sclavonian tribe, which swelled the titles of Justinian with an epithet of conquest.
I complimented him upon his situation, calling him a fortunate fellow, and applying the same epithet to myself for having gained him all the advantages he enjoyed, and the hope of one day becoming a secular priest.
And, leaving the good doctor to digest this new and strange epithet, Coleridge bade farewell to his college and his university, and went forth into that world with which he was to wage so painful and variable a struggle.
In my humble opinion, the true characteristic of the present beau monde is rather folly than vice, and the only epithet which it deserves is that of frivolous.
All the manuscript alterations in the margins had been heavily blacked out and on certain pages offensive epithets had been written in rough block capitals.
In talking he always paced the room, hands in pockets, and at times fairly stammered in his endeavour to hit upon sufficiently trenchant epithets or comparisons.
Should I add to these the epithets of wise, brave, elegant, and indeed every other amiable epithet in our language, I might surely say, -Quis credet?