Have you considered the affect of utilizing epithets in your writing? An epithet (from the Greek phrase epithetos, which means “added”) is a phrase or phrase used instead of or along with a reputation to characterize the individual, place, or factor. In fiction or nonfiction, it’s an efficient system for evoking the topic’s qualities and for elegant variation.
An epithet, additionally known as a byname, is typically additionally known as sobriquet, although this phrase (and its variant soubriquet) can be a synonym for the extra pedestrian nickname.
You’re aware of many epithets: Superheroes are frequent recipients of such designations: Superman is the Man of Metal, and Batman is the Caped Crusader or the Darkish Knight. Such software of this system is simply pure, contemplating that all through historical past, legendary and legendary characters have acquired alternate appellations based mostly on numerous features of their perceived personalities, corresponding to Venus Genetrix (“Mom Venus”). Greek myths and tales are replete with epithets; Homer employed them liberally for poetic impact, as in referring to Agamemnon as “the son of Atreus” for” or calling the ocean “the wine-dark sea.”
Musicians, too, are given epithets (or declare them for themselves): Michael Jackson was the King of Pop, Aretha Franklin was the Queen of Soul, the Beatles have been the Fab 4, and Bruce Springsteen remains to be the Boss. Different artists have earned them, too, like William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, or simply the Bard.
Epithets describe politicians corresponding to Ronald Reagan, the Nice Communicator or the Teflon President, and his modern Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Woman. German chief Otto von Bismarck was known as the Iron Chancellor, and a successor of his, Adolf Hitler, was styled Der Führer (“the Chief”), whereas his Italian counterpart, Benito Mussolini, was Il Duce (“the Duke”).
Athletes have had epithets bestowed on them: Babe Ruth was the Nice Bambino, or simply the Bambino (Italian for “child”), and the Sultan of Swat, whereas Brazilian soccer star Pele was the King of Soccer.
As acknowledged above, epithets can be utilized to locations or issues. Earlier than Africa was totally explored by Europeans and plenty of of its nations got here into their very own within the twentieth century, it was lengthy known as the Darkish Continent. The New York Instances remains to be recognized amongst journalists because the Grey Woman. Economics has been dubbed “the dismal science.”
Word the mechanics of utilizing epithets: Once they seem by themselves, no emphasis is critical aside from, often, preliminary capitalization of key phrases within the phrase. However enclose them in citation marks when inserting them between first and final names (“Elvis ‘the King’ Presley”) or naming them as phrases (“Jealously is typically known as ‘the green-eyed monster’”).
Reasonable use of epithets helps relieve the author of getting to solely use an individual’s identify or a pronoun, and it additionally permits for good-natured or not-so-good-natured humor: Within the latter case, for instance, the late artist Thomas Kinkade, broadly criticized for the hubris of trademarking the non-public epithet “the Painter of Gentle,” was known as “the Painter of Bud Gentle” after an arrest for driving inebriated.
In a extra lighthearted vein, the character Horace Rumpole, from the tv sequence Rumpole of the Bailey and its offshoots in different media, privately refers to his imperious spouse as “She Who Should Be Obeyed”; this epithet is a tongue-in-cheek homage to the regal title character of the nineteenth-century lost-civilization novel She: A Historical past of Journey.
In fact, writers can make use of epithets in a extra practical vein, as once they confer with any of the historic figures and pop-culture personalities talked about above, however a topic needn’t be well-known to earn an epithet: “Underneath his breath, Smith referred to Jones, who by no means returned what he borrowed, as ‘the Lord of the Gentle Fingers’ and ‘the Grasp of Mendicants.’”
