EPIGRAM • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Epigram

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/ˈɛpəgrˌæm/ Listen

noun

Epigram n.

A short poem treating concisely and pointedly of a single thought or event. The modern epigram is so contrived as to surprise the reader with a witticism or ingenious turn of thought, and is often satirical in character. "Dost thou think I care for a satire or an epigram?" Note: Epigrams were originally inscription on tombs, statues, temples, triumphal arches, etc.

An effusion of wit; a bright thought tersely and sharply expressed, whether in verse or prose.

The style of the epigram. "Antithesis, i. e., bilateral stroke, is the soul of epigram in its later and technical signification."

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Etymology of 'Epigram'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Epigram" Quotes from Famous Books

... most deceptive likeness to the classical style is borne by a class of poems in elegiacs or hexameters, whose subject ranges from elegy, strictly so called, to epigram. As the humanists dealt most freely of all with the text of the Roman elegiac poets, so they felt themselves most at home in imitating them. The elegy of Navagero addressed to the Night, like other poems of the ...

— The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy • Jacob Burckhardt

... all our friends here," said Bristles. "For two years we have done nothing but praise you wherever we went. Haven't we sneered at Bailey, and laughed at the ancient statues? Who wrote the epigram on Thorwaldsen—was it not our friend now present, Mr Banks? a gentleman, I must say, perfectly unequaled in the radiance of his wit and the delicious pungency of his satire. Without us, what would you ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLII. Vol. LV. April, 1844 • Various

... strayed and gazed alone. What flippant Frenchman [3] was it who said, in allusion to the well known work of Zimmermann, that "la solitude est une belle chose; mais il faut quelqu'un pour vous dire que la solitude est une belle chose"? The epigram cannot be gainsaid; but the necessity is a thing that ...

— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe

... unflinching frankness was the most piquant form of joke to the company at the Rainbow, and Ben Winthrop's insult was felt by everybody to have capped Mr. Macey's epigram. ...

— Silas Marner - The Weaver of Raveloe • George Eliot

... "Lancea sanctorum tunc inopina salus." Epigram apud Le Laboureur, Additions aux mem. ...

— The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Henry Martyn Baird

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