Forms: 6–7 epithete, -thite, epethite, (6 epithat, epythite, -the), 6– epithet. [ad. L. epitheton, a. Gr. ἐπίθετον adj., neut. of ἐπίθετος attributed, f. ἐπιτιθέναι, f. ἐπί upon + τιθέναι to place. Cf. Fr. epithète.
The Gr. word was used by grammarians for ‘adjective,’ but they did not distinguish between adjs. and descriptive sbs. in apposition with a name.]
1. An adjective indicating some quality or attribute that the speaker or writer regards as characteristic of the person or thing described.
1588. Fraunce, Lawiers Log., Ded. Your two last Epithetes wherein you disgrace the law with rudenesse and barbarisme.
1612. Dekker, If it be not good, etc. Wks. 1873, III. 305. T’expresse whose vilenes, there’s no epithite.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies (1840), II. 240. His epithets were pregnant with metaphors.
1718. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., II. xlix. 56. I admired the exact geography of Homer … almost every epithet he gives to a mountain or plain is still just for it.
1788. Reid, Aristotle’s Log., iv. § 6. 95. The epithets of pure and modal are applied to syllogisms as well as to propositions.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, I. 173. The term barbarous … in Homer … is only used as an epithet of language.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, I. v. Hollow, empty—is the epithet justly bestowed on Fame.
¶ b. nonce-use. That which gives an epithet to.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., I. 154/5. To Sparta then, and Pylos, where doth beate Bright Amathus, the flood, and epithete To all that kingdome.
2. A significant appellation.
(A spurious word ‘Epithite, a plotter, traitor,’ given in mod. Dicts. originated in a misunderstanding of quot. 1607.)
1579. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (1884), 61. Christen them by names and epithites nothing agreable or appliante to the thinges themselves.
1607. G. Wilkins, Miseries Inforst Marriage, F iij. Sir Will. Like to a swine. Lord Faulconb. A perfect Epythite: hee feeds on draffe, And wallowes in the mire.
1634. W. Wood, New Engl. Prosp., I. v. Many of these trees … have epithites contrary to the nature of them as they grow in England.
1683. Pettus, Fleta Min., II. 2. Before we fix our Title or Epithite to the Master of this Science.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, I. vi. 201. He assumed the proud Epithet of Sultan, or Monarch of Tunis and all Barbary.
1862. Sir B. Brodie, Psychol. Inq., II. iv. 129. We … employ the French term of ennui, for want of an equally appropriate epithet in English.
† 3. Used for: A term, phrase, expression. Obs.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, V. ii. 67. Suffer loue! a good epithite; I do suffer loue indeede; for I loue thee against my will. Ibid. (1604), Oth., I. i. 14. A bumbast Circumstance Horribly stufft with Epithites of warre.
4. attrib.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., vi. 214. The epithet-period points to a vast series of bygone ages.
1884. Manch. Exam., 26 May, 3/1. To increase the epithet power of our tongue in coining adjectives.
