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1. A term used to characterize a person or thing.

eg. 'the Terrible', in 'Ivan the Terrible'

2. A term used as a descriptive substitute for the name or title of a person.

eg. 'The Young Pretender' for 'Charles Edward Stuart'

3. (Biology) A word in the scientific name of a taxon following the name of the genus or species. This applies only to formal names of plants, fungi and bacteria. In formal names of animals an epithet does not occur.

* in Cannabis sativa the word sativa is a specific epithet.

* in Festuca ovina subsp. guestphalica, the word guestphalica is an infraspecific epithet.

4. An abusive or contemptuous word or phrase.

eg. "Look it up for yourself in 'Wiktionary' you lazy sod!"

(only kidding!)

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/epithet

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17y ago

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