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Epithet
Epithet is a word or phrase which expresses some quality
of a person, thing, idea or phenomenon. It serves to emphasize a certain property or feature. Epithet is of special significance in different kinds of poetry. Each epoch and each genre has its own stock of traditional epithets. Sometimes they are called fixed: “green wood”, “merry men”, “true love”, “yellow hair”. The choice of epithets is one of the primary characteristics of a poet’s style:
“The flowing Spring leads Sunny Summer,
And yellow Autumn presses near,
Then in its turn comes gloomy Winter
Till smiling Spring appears.” (R.Burns).
Semantically we differentiate two main groups: affective (or emotive proper) - this is the biggest group - and figurative (or transferred). Emotive epithets serve to convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker. Most of the qualifying words can be used as affective epithets (“gorgeous”, “nasty”, “magnificent”, atrocious”).
Figurative epithets are metaphors, metonymies and similes which are expressed by adjectives:
”the smiling sun”, “the frowning cloud”, “the sleepless pillow”, “a ghost-like face”, “a dreamlike experience”. These epithets are based on similarity of characteristics of two objects, or nearness of the qualified objects, or their comparison.