What is Epithet?

A simple definition that has been learned in school emerges: the epithet is an expressively expressive means of language.

But let's take a closer look at what an epithet is. From Greek, this word is translated as "attached", that is, the definition applied to the word being defined. He gives the word an individual color, complements the meaning, saturates. The section of literature that studies a work of art and its structure is called poetics.

What is an epithet is known from ancient times. Since ancient times, epithets are divided into "necessary" and "decorating". The first include those definitions that concretize the word, merging with it, becomes an inseparable phrase and can not be separated from each other without harming the semantic content. For example, "English", "stale bread", "white fever". Without their definitions, these words will lose their inherent uniqueness and distinctiveness. The language can be anything, but English is English only. The decorating epithet, on the contrary, refines and details the features or signs inherent in the word. For example, "golden ears", "black night", "spring thunder".

But increasingly experts are inclined to believe that such an epithet, referring specifically to this word - decorating.

What is an epithet and how can it be? Epithet can be represented not in one grammatical form, but in different. As an epithet can act as an adjective, and a noun.

For example, "blue of heaven" and "blue sea". "Blue" and "blue" are epithets.

Some researchers argue that, depending on the situation, even a verb can act as an epithet. In the phrase "the sea turns blue", the word "blue" appears as a modification of the adjective blue, suggesting another form of expression of the same property.

What is the epithet and what is its role?

The artistic epithet enlivens the sentences, turning them into vivid images, giving the usual words unusual properties. Imagine a story devoid of any definition.

The man was sitting at the table, looking out the window at the thunderstorm ...

Is not the monotonous reading wrong? Objects seem flat, reality is monochrome, actions are routine.

What is an epithet? Epithets attach volume to words. Not just a person looking for inspiration writer. Not just a table, but a solid wood, expensive, spacious. It's not just a thunderstorm, but a spring, tearing sky, condescending with a downpour on loose ground.

Reading the text saturated with trails, you transfer to the universe created by the author and connect to it. This is the magic of literature and it is helped in many ways by trails, such as the epithet.

The acknowledged master in the use of epithets is the English writer Oscar Wilde. The saturation of one sentence with epithets in his main work - "Portrait of Dorian Gray" - is amazing.

It would seem that familiar words, but skilfully connected together in one sentence only, paint a complete picture of life, immersing in the atmosphere of the early 20th century. Wald was able to play beautiful words, with each object he characterized precisely as an epithet. Only he could fully reveal the whole essence of the conceived and characterize not only man, but also the surrounding life. Without these descriptions, the characterization of our life is not possible. In everyday life, we often use this concept, even without knowing what it means. Nevertheless, with certainty we can say that we are surrounded by continuous "descriptive words".

Among the Russian masters, words, first of all, are singled out by poets.

Thanks to folklore, in Russian there were stable expressions and as a whole there was a definition of the epithet, which are directly associated with folk art. These include the words "white swan", "red sun", "clean field", "good young man", "golden cockerel", "bright eyes" are widely known through fairy tales.