Category: Cognitive Tests

• An epithet is a nickname or descriptive term that’s added to someone’s name that becomes part of common usage. For example, in the name Alexander the Great, “the Great” is an epithet.
• an adjective or phrase expressing a quality or attribute regarded as characteristic of the person or thing mentioned.
• a descriptive word or phrase that replaces a person, place, or object—not all adjectives are epithets.

3 Types of Epithets With Examples of Each

Familiarize yourself with the different types of epithets and epithet examples so you can use them—or in some cases, avoid using them—more purposefully and effectively:

1. Fixed epithet. The repeated use of a word or phrase for the same person, place, or object. Also called the Homeric epithet, fixed epithets are commonly used in epic poetry. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus is repeatedly referred to as “many-minded,” Penelope as “prudent,” and Telemachus as “sound-minded.”
2. Argumentative epithet. Epithets that hint at a warning. Argumentative epithets are commonly used by orators to suggest a possible outcome. During a speech, a lawmaker might reference the negative outcomes of a past war or skirmish, strongly hinting that something similarly bad could happen if circumstances don’t change.
3. Kenning. A specific epithet that’s a two-word phrase that metaphorically describes an object. Kennings are commonly found in Old English and Old Norse poetry. “Sky-candle” is a kenning for the sun and “bookworm” is a more modern kenning in the English language for a voracious reader.

Epithet	meaning	Usage
Blue-Eyed
Good-for-nothing	-(of a person) lazy and feckless.	– “his good-for-nothing son” – The boy was a real terror ,they called him a little good for nothing
gut-feeling	an instinctive feeling, as opposed to an opinion based on facts.	– she had the Gut Feeling about the new boyfriend of her sister -My gut feeling was that this woman was a good woman.
weary-road		-I Have walked this weary road for so long
While-Hand