prosopopoeia en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /pɹəˌsəʊpəˈpiːə/
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek προσωποποιία (prosōpopoiía, “dramatization, the putting of speeches into the mouths of characters”). By surface analysis, prosopo- + -poeia.
Meanings
-
(countable, rhetoric, uncountable) An act of personifying a person or object when communicating to an audience; a figure of speech involving this.
Of the prosopopœia or personification, there are two kinds: one when action and character are attributed to fictitious, irrational, or even inanimate objects; the others, when a probable but fictitious speech is assigned to a real character.
1819 January, Thomas Hartwell Horne, “An introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures”, in The Eclectic Review, page 35:Prosopopœia a new person feigns, And to inanimates speech and actions deigns.
1835, L[arret] Langley, “[Rhetorical Figures.] Prosopopoeia.”, in A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster, South Yorkshire: […] C. White, […], →OCLC, page 23:Hence the frequency and beauty of the prosopopoeia in poetry, where trees, mountains, and streams are personified, and the inanimate parts of nature acquire sentiment and passion.
2013, Graham Harvey, Animism: Respecting the Living World, page 4:
- (countable, uncountable) The personification of an abstraction.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| prosopopœia | alternative | lexicographic | |
| prosopopeia | alternative | lexicographic | |
| prosopopoeiae | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| prosopopoeias | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Relateds
prosopopesis · anthropomorphism
Translations (11)
fr prosopopée (Personifying a person or object.) · it prosopopea (Personifying a person or object.) · pl prozopopeja (Personifying a person or object.) · pl animizacja (the personification of an abstraction.) · ca prosopopeia (Personifying a person or object.) · pt prosopopéia (Personifying a person or object.) · it prosopopea (the personification of an abstraction.) · bg олицетворение (Personifying a person or object.) · es prosopopeya (Personifying a person or object.) · pl ożywienie (the personification of an abstraction.) · fr prosopopée (the personification of an abstraction.)