Epithets

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A descriptive term or phrase used to characterize someone or something, often highlighting a specific quality or trait
2. An alternative label assigned to a person or thing, functioning to convey particular attributes or significance
3. A word or phrase, frequently incorporating an adjective, that serves to describe or define a noun in a more vivid or expressive manner

Etymology: The Greek word "epitheton" meant something added on: it was built from "epi-", meaning "in addition," and "tithenai", meaning "to put," so the idea was of a phrase set onto a name. Ancient Greek grammarians used the neuter form to mean an attributive adjective, a descriptive word placed alongside a noun, such as "rosy-fingered" in Homer's "rosy-fingered dawn." The term passed into Latin as "epitheton" and "epithetum," and from there into Middle French as "épithète," which English borrowed. The English form and the Latin form both pass down from the same Greek source, so the word is a doublet of the Latin "epitheton," meaning the two came into English by different routes. The English "epithet" once carried a stronger sense of insult, a sense it has largely lost, but the core meaning of a label attached to a person has stayed the same from Greek times onward.

Synonyms: titles, labels, descriptors