Epithets

[Name of the supervisor]

Introduction3

Discussion Analysis4

Origin of Few Epithets4

Controversy between Liberal and Conservatives5

Use of Epithets in Minority6

Word Use vs. Word selection7

Harm Through language8

Conclusion8

Epithets

Introduction

Epithet is like the curse for both Americans and other English speakers in the whole world. Usually, epithets called as a Homer's epithets and most of the times it is known as the Homeric epitaph. It has been researched that the characteristics of epithet is featured from Iliad and Odyssey by Homer. He was behind the creation of epithet in the Odyssey and Iliad. Thus, Athena was denoted as the "gray-eyed" and the “goddess of dawn”; Eos as the "rosy-fingered dawn." The term Epithet is derived from Greek language, which means pouring something on someone. Epithet is a nickname or tag that could be used with the actual name. In current colloquial usage, the word "epithet" usually implies a dyslogistic term for a particular group of people.

According to the Merriam Webster, Epithet is an abusive or disparaging phrase or word. This paper is intended to define the origin of Epithet and its impacts over the ethnicity, race, sexual or gender and religious practices. However, the tones of few words have been changed in the modern times, such as “Gay” which still means “Joyful”, but in the past decade, something that is "so gay" has turned in a gruelling phrase like "silly". By the number of centuries, the tone and context of the words have changed the meanings of the term. Today, the gruelling remark affects Italians and Irish not more than they hold in the Lower East Side of New York in the 20th century (Walter, 174).

Discussion Analysis

Origin of Few Epithets

Every word has some origin and background that defines its usage in that particular state. The primary usage of the word “Faggot” was a bundle of sticks, but in modern times, it is cited for homosexuals. The Oxford English Dictionary has entered this word with the slang meaning in 1914. The original usage of Faggots defines that it was mainly used for stimulating public executions, especially when criminals burned at stake in the middle of 14th century. There is a myth behind this theory that Hitler invoked the term and burned gays or homosexuals with faggots and from that the term was taken place. The word Faggot has been greatly used by Jews as an epithet for gay, and most of the lexicologists do not believe the relation of homosexuals and faggots.

Dictionaries declare that the word “Kike” was first used in the year of 1904, but scholar book does not provide its origin. According to the Merriam-Webster, Jews are fine with few harshest-sounding epithets in which Kike is one of them. This epithet is used for a category of Jews, and it has certain theories behind it. German Jews taunts the arrival of Eastern European Jews and make fun of the names of new immigrants, many of which finished in "ski" and "sky". These words were later casted into ...