metaphrast

American  

[met-uh-frast] / ˈmɛt əˌfræst /

noun

1. a person who translates or changes a literary work from one form to another, as prose into verse.

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metaphrast British  

/ ˈmɛtəˌfræst /

noun

1. a person who metaphrases, esp one who changes the form of a text, as by rendering verse into prose

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Other Word Forms

• metaphrastic adjective
• metaphrastical adjective
• metaphrastically adverb

Etymology

Origin of metaphrast

1600–10; Medieval Greek metaphrástēs one who translates, equivalent to *metaphrad-, base of metaphrázein to translate ( meta-, phrase ) + -tēs agent suffix

Example Sentences

The remaining Martyrologies, those of the Metaphrast, of the Bollandists, and of the Armenian version, have no independent value, being compacted from these two.

From Project Gutenberg

The story was first popular in the Greek Church, and was embodied in the lives of the saints, as recooked by Simeon the Metaphrast, an author whose period is disputed, but was in any case not later than 1150.

From Project Gutenberg

But a contrary effect must have been produced by a new edition of the lives of the saints, which the great logothete, or chancellor of the empire, was directed to prepare; and the dark fund of superstition was enriched by the fabulous and florid legends of Simon the Metaphrast.

From Project Gutenberg