prosopopoeia

See also: prosopopœia

English

Alternative forms

• prosopopeia
• prosopopœia

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek προσωποποιία (prosōpopoiía, “dramatization, the putting of speeches into the mouths of characters”). By surface analysis, prosopo- +‎ -poeia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹəˌsəʊpəˈpiːə/

Noun

prosopopoeia (countable and uncountable, plural prosopopoeias or prosopopoeiae)

1. (rhetoric) An act of personifying a person or object when communicating to an audience; a figure of speech involving this.
   • 1819 January, Thomas Hartwell Horne, “An introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures”, in The Eclectic Review‎^[1], page 35:

     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.

   • 1835, L[arret] Langley, A Manual of the Figures of Rhetoric, […], Doncaster: Printed by C. White, Baxter-Gate, →OCLC, page 23:

     Prosopopœia a new person feigns,
     And to inanimates speech and actions deigns.

   • 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.

2. Personification of an abstraction.

Translations

Personifying a person or object.

• Bulgarian: олицетворение (bg) n (olicetvorenie)
• French: prosopopée (fr) f
• Italian: prosopopea (it) f
• Polish: prozopopeja f
• Portuguese: prosopopéia (pt) f

Personification of an abstraction.

• French: prosopopée (fr) f
• Italian: prosopopea (it) f
• Polish: animizacja (pl) n, ożywienie (pl) n

See also

• anthropomorphism