epigraph
1
8.4
- noun
- /ˈɛpɪˌɡræf/
- Literature
:
epígrafe
- The author included a poignant epigraph at the beginning of the novel to hint at its central theme.
- epigraph is a quotation
- epigraph to the essay
- the first epigraph
It opens with an epigraph by Susan Sontag.
- It opens with an epigraph by Susan Sontag.
- I was a little reluctant with that epigraph to the book because I said it's not making me out to be Hercules.
- So this is my little epigraph to JA.
Examples
-
It opens with an epigraph by Susan Sontag.
-
Cater prefaced his work with an epigraph from James Reston: "The nineteenth century was the era of the novelist."
Academic text (1995) -
I was a little reluctant with that epigraph to the book because I said it's not making me out to be Hercules.
-
As the epigraph to this article suggests, Cheshire's "death" did not come as a complete surprise.
Academic text (2005) -
Whatever the reason for its popularity, the epigraph's spell has never been stronger.
Academic text (2010) -
The speaker of Correspondence is the collector described in its epigraph as one who "takes up the struggle against dispersion."
Academic text (2007) -
Ludwig Wittgenstein is reported to have considered using this line as the epigraph to his Philosophical Investigations.
Academic text (1997) -
Until Eliot and Pound, epigraphs were rarely associated with poetry.
Academic text (2010) -
All men are man, as Victor Hugo put it, quoted in the epigraph of Firmin's final chapter.
Academic text (2010) -
The epigraph to Nerval's Pandora is taken from his own translation of Goethe's Faust.
Academic text (2005)
Synonyms
430
1.6
A short passage from a book or speech that someone repeats
3
8.0
A short clever saying or poem that makes a witty point
A short quote placed at the start of a book or chapter to show its theme
How Thematic
Surface Forms
Morphology
epigraph = graph (opaque) = epi + graph
Although the form is built from 'epi-' and 'graph', the conventional meaning 'quotation at the beginning of a book or chapter' is a specialized extension that learners are unlikely to infer.
Etymology
Epigraph comes from the Greek parts epi- meaning 'on' and -graph meaning 'write', the same -graph in autograph. A helpful way to remember it is to think of a short 'writing on' the front of a book; that's why an epigraph is a quotation placed at the start of a book or chapter to suggest its theme.