Alternative Contemporary Usage
In contemporary usage, epithet may also refer to an abusive, defamatory, or derogatory phrase, such as a racial epithet or as in 'the dismal science'. The euphemistic use is deprecated by Martin Manser and other prescriptive linguists.
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Famous quotes containing the words alternative, contemporary and/or usage:
“No alternative to the
one-man path.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“Anyone who has invented a better mousetrap, or the contemporary equivalent, can expect to be harassed by strangers demanding that you read their unpublished manuscripts or undergo the humiliation of public speaking, usually on remote Midwestern campuses.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates—but pages
Might be filled up, as vainly as before,
With the sad usage of all sorts of sages,
Who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore!
The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)