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Webster 1913 Edition
Prosopopoeia
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Prosˊo-po-pœ′ia
,Noun.
[L., fr. Gr. [GREEK];
πρόσωπον
a face, a person + [GREEK] to make.] (Rhet.)
A figure by which things are represented as persons, or by which things inanimate are spoken of as animated beings; also, a figure by which an absent person is introduced as speaking, or a deceased person is represented as alive and present. It includes personification, but is more extensive in its signification.
Definition 2024
prosopopoeia
prosopopoeia
See also: prosopopœia
English
Alternative forms
Noun
prosopopoeia (plural prosopopoeias or prosopopoeiae)
- (rhetoric) Personifying a person or object when communicating to an audience.
- 1872, Thomas Hartwell Horne, An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, Volume 2 - Page 334:
- Of the prosopopoeia, or personification, there are two kinds; one, when actions and character are attributed to irrational, or even inanimate objects; the other, when a probable but fictitious speech is assigned to a real character.
- 2013, Graham Harvey, Animism: Respecting the Living World, page 4:
- 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.
- 1872, Thomas Hartwell Horne, An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, Volume 2 - Page 334:
- Personification of an abstraction.