From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Tue Sep 30 1997 - 20:35:49 EDT
On Tue 30 Sep 97 (11:06:41), jwrobie@mindspring.com wrote:
> It may well be, but that doesn't mean that I have any idea what
> Epitheton means. Could somebody please enlighten me?
/EPIQETON/ is Greek for an adjective, an epithet; an added quality or
quantifier, from /EPITIQHMI/, to add. An Epitheton is an Adjective; it
cannot be a noun or other part of speech.
The Book of Common Prayer (Anglican, 1662) is full of Hendiadys: the art
of never using one word, when two will do! 50% redundancy.
"...the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to *acknowledge and confess* our
manifold *sins and wickednesses*; and that we should not *dissemble nor cloke*
them...; but confess them... when we *assemble and meet together*... to ask
those things which are *requisite and necessary*.... Wherefore I *pray and
beseech you*....
"Almighty and most merciful Father; we have *erred and strayed* from thy
ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the *devices and desires*
of our own hearts...".
There is also the opposite of Hendiadys, Zeugma: using one word (verb) in two
different senses, when two separate verbs would be better:
"Wherefore let us beseech Him *to grant us* true repentance, and His Holy
Spirit".
The usual grammar-book example is "He *went out* in a bath robe and a flood
of tears".
-- Revd Ben Crick, BA CF <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
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