Epithet

An epithet is a word or phrase attached to a proper name that describes a defining quality of the person or thing named: 'Alexander the Great', 'Ivan the Terrible', 'rosy-fingered Dawn', 'the swift-footed Achilles'. In its oldest use — Homeric epic — the epithet is a fixed formula, repeated whenever the name appears, that helps the oral poet fit the name to the metre of the line. In later use, epithets became honorifics, distinguishers between people with the same name, or expressions of judgement.

There are several distinct kinds. The Homeric or fixed epithet is a stock formula. The transferred epithet applies an adjective to a noun to which it does not, strictly, belong ('the ploughman homeward plods his weary way' — it is the ploughman, not the way, who is weary). The kenning is a compressed metaphorical epithet, particularly common in Old English and Old Norse poetry ('whale-road' for sea, 'ring-giver' for lord).

In modern journalism the word 'epithet' has drifted, often, to mean a slur. This is one specialised use — the pejorative epithet. In careful literary usage the term is neutral: an epithet can be praising, blaming, descriptive, or merely metrical.

For writers, the epithet is a compression tool: a single well-chosen descriptor can carry as much characterisation as a paragraph. The risk is caricature — an epithet that reduces a person to a single feature. Reserve the device for figures who need a shorthand, and vary the epithet as the character changes.