Also 7 epigraphe. [ad. Gr. ἐπιγραφή inscription, f. ἐπιγράφειν to write upon, f. ἐπί upon + γράφειν to write. In Fr. épigraphe.]
1. An inscription; esp. one placed upon a building, tomb, statue, etc., to indicate its name or destination; a legend on a coin.
1624. Fisher, in White’s Repl. Fisher, Pref. v. These words … which should serue as an Epigraph vpon all their houses.
1662. Evelyn, Diary (1818), 3 Oct. Dr. Meret … shew’d me … the statue and epigraph under it of that renowned physitian Dr. Harvey. Ibid. (1697), Numism., iii. 99. And this Epigraph, Quid me Persequeris.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., V. 90. The epigraph on the face, instead of the exurgue, is the precise Oriental custom of this day.
1832. Thirlwall, in Philol. Mus., I. 495. The epigraph of the thousand citizens who fell … at Chæronea.
1866. Reader, 28 July, 684/1. He had succeeded in deciphering The oldest Samaritan epigraph now existing, which had been found immured in the wall of a mosque near Nablus.
† 2. The superscription of a letter, book, etc.; also, the imprint on a title-page. Obs.
1633. T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter i. 1. 4. Our Apostle puts in two words into the Epigraph of this Epistle, which he left out in the former.
1642. Sir E. Dering, Sp. on Relig., 14 Dec. v. 20. You shall find it even in the Epigraphe of the Canons and Decrees.
a. 1734. North, Exam., III. vi. § 116. 503. As he fronts it in the brazen Epigraph of his new Work.
1812. Monthly Rev., LXVII. 145. Geneva was adopted for the epigraph of the title-page.
1826. Southey, Lett. to Butler, 217. He was of opinion that a diviner impulse had led him to chuse that epigraph [the title of a book].
3. A short quotation or pithy sentence placed at the commencement of a work, a chapter, etc., to indicate the leading idea or sentiment; a motto.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Sonnets from Portuguese, xlii. Wks. (1869), III. 229. And write me new my future’s epigraph.
1860. S. Lover, Leg. & Stor. (ed. 10), i. The beautiful ballad whence the epigraph of this story is quoted.
1874. Lewes, Problems Life & Mind, I. 123. That phrase which is placed as an epigraph to this chapter.
transf. 1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., I. III. v. 171. The Epigraph and Life-motto which John the Steadfast had adopted.
