Epithet, n.
Etymology: [L. epitheton, Gr. épithète. See Do.]
1. An adjective expressing some quality, attribute, or relation, that is properly or specially appropriate to a person or thing; as, a just man; a verdant lawn. A prince [Henry III.] to whom the epithet "worthless" seems best applicable. Hallam.
2. Term; expression; phrase. "Stiffed with epithets of war." Shak.
Syn. -- Epithet, Title. The name epithet was formerly extended to nouns which give a title or describe character (as the "epithet of liar"), but is now confined wholly to adjectives. Some rhetoricians, as Whately, restrict it still further, considering the term epithet as belonging only to a limited class of adjectives, viz., those which add nothing to the sense of their noun, but simply hold forth some quality necessarily implied therein; as, the bright sun, the lofty heavens, etc. But this restriction does not prevail in general literature. Epithet is sometimes confounded with application, which is always a noun or its equivalent.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Epithet, v. t.
To describe by an epithet. [R.] Never was a town better epitheted. Sir H. Wotton.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for epithet; he lists it under name.
Where he writes about it:
An epithet (Gr. epitheton, something added, from epi, on, and tithemi, put) is something placed upon a person or thing; the epithet does not strictly belong to an object like a name, but is given to mark some assumed characteristic, good or bad; an epithet is always an adjective, or a word or phrase used as an adjective, and is properly used to emphasize a characteristic but not to add information, as in the phrase "the sounding sea;" the idea that an epithet is always opprobrious, and that any word used opprobriously is an epithet is a popular error. — from name