prosopopoeia
Americannoun
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personification, as of inanimate things.
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a figure of speech in which an imaginary, absent, or deceased person is represented as speaking or acting.
noun
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rhetoric another word for personification
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a figure of speech that represents an imaginary, absent, or dead person speaking or acting
Other Word Forms
- prosopopoeial adjective
Etymology
Origin of prosopopoeia
First recorded in 1550–60; from Latin prosōpopoeia, from Greek prosōpopoiía “personification,” equivalent to prósōpo(n) “face, person ” + poi(eîn) “to make” + -ia -ia
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Over its many seasons of courtship Harrison has come to be the prosopopoeia of all the nation's unease over changing demographics.
From Salon
Where others would say “I don’t want to talk in my husband’s place”, she said something I’ve never heard anyone else say: “I don’t like prosopopoeia.”
From The Guardian
The want of scenery is sometimes supplied by a very unclassical figure, which, just the reverse of the prosopopoeia or personification of grammarians, considers persons to represent things.
From Project Gutenberg
Phædrus evidently confounds them with tales; and Gay, both with tales and allegorical prosopopoeias.
From Project Gutenberg
Yet in nearly every literature death has been personified, while no kindred prosopopoeia of life is anywhere to be found.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
