In everyday conversation, "epic" is often slang for superb or excellent. The term is also applied to productions on a large or grandiose scale (novels, movies).
The modern use is a metaphorical extension of its basic meaning, a literary genre consisting of an extended verse narrative. In the Western tradition, the first great epics were Homer's Iliadand Odyssey. The term is also applied to similar narratives in other traditions -- for example, the Indian Mahabharata.Even in literary criticism, one sometimes finds it used for works which do not strictly qualify -- for example, Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself."
Non-literary uses like "epic movie" or "epic event" are common in advertising and occasionally appear even in formal prose.
Wiki User
∙ 2012-04-24 07:54:11Wiki User
∙ 2015-08-21 06:00:59In everyday conversation, "epic" is often used loosely to refer to anything big or important or long. All such uses are metaphorical extensions of its basic meaning, in which it denotes a literary genre, an extended verse narrative. In the Western tradition, the first great epics were Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The term is also applied to similar narratives in other traditions--for example, the Indian Mahabharata. Even in literary criticism, one sometimes finds it used of works which do not strictly qualify--for example, Whitman's "Song of Myself."
Strictly speaking, though the word "Epic" should be restricted to tales which engage multiple generations of characters. The Illiad, e.g. is not epic, whereas The Odyssey is, in that the Illiad is just a war story, told as such, as opposed to Telemachus's search for his father moves it into the Epic catagory.
I would consider Evelyn Waugh's "Sword of Valor" trilogy to be epic, following as it does the death of the father and older sons, the survival of the remaining son, and the adoption of the estranged wife's bastard son
Non-literary uses like "epic movie" or "epic event" are common in advertising and occasionally appear even in formal prose, but it is probably safer to avoid them when writing for English teachers.
Wiki User
∙ 2011-04-22 17:30:04In everyday conversation, "epic" is often used loosely to refer to anything big or important or long. All such uses are metaphorical extensions of its basic meaning, in which it denotes a literary genre, an extended verse narrative. In the Western tradition, the first great epics were Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The term is also applied to similar narratives in other traditions--for example, the Indian Mahabharata. Even in literary criticism, one sometimes finds it used of works which do not strictly qualify--for example, Whitman's "Song of Myself."
Non-literary uses like "epic movie" or "epic event" are common in advertising and occasionally appear even in formal prose, but it is probably safer to avoid them when writing for English teachers.
Wiki User
∙ 2014-01-18 16:12:02The term epicness is somewhat of a grammatically incorrect way to say that something is spectacular or fantastically huge. An example might be "Sharon's new shoes cost a lot of money and they're limited edition, they are epicness"
Epic can be a noun and an adjective. Noun: An extended poem celebrating the feats of a hero. Adjective: Relating to an epic.
Epically
answers.com fails epically
you can't, unless you epically fail a cheat code.
a lot more than Juston Upton
Yes he got many awards epically for singing
The Adventures of Ledo and Ix - 2011 Ledo and Ix Battle Epically 1-4 was released on: USA: 11 March 2011
family,friends,soulmates, school friends,and epically sometimes you
Dolphins communicate with clicks, screams, and whistles. Communicating is important epically in large pods.
Neville Chamberlin and his idiotic and epically failed appeasement on the Sudetenland.
popped in a disgusting hole in thwe ground and used fire hydrants to clean them out but failed epically.
she invites all her friends epically demi lavoto to hang out and watch movies and eat pop corn!