All in a nickname
A girl’s name is Maria, but her parents call her Mary. Her sister calls her Mari. And her friends call her Merry-go-round when she’s being silly. Mary, Mari, and Merry-go-round are all epithets, or special nicknames that replace the name of a person and often describe them in some way. Epithets are not only limited to people but to objects or places too.
A formal definition could be that an epithet is an adjective or adjectival phrase to characterise a person, thing, attribute, place or quality. It uses a qualifying word or phrase to further describe something.
Epithets show how strong certain character traits or physical traits are, as they come to replace the actual names of people, places, or things. They are also known as sobriquets.
Examples: One of the most famous monarchs from Russia was the Grand Prince of Moscow, who was also the first Tsar of Russia from 1547 to 1584 is Ivan IV Vasilyevich, but is most popularly known as Ivan the Terrible. He was known to have a terrible temper and have done some questionable things to earn him the nickname.
Another example could be Catherine the Great, who was the Empress of Russia and the longest-ruling female leader.
An example of an epithet in terms of geography is ‘Down Under’ is often used to refer to Australia.
Here’s a quick quiz on some of the popularly used epithets. How many of them have you heard before?