Word of the Day

Thursday, October 05, 2000

epigone

\EP-uh-gohn\ , noun;

An inferior imitator, especially of some distinguished writer, artist, musician, or philosopher.

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Quotes:

He probably was influenced by John le Carré. . . . But Mr. Crisp . . . is no mere epigone.

-- Newgate Callendar, "Who's The Mole?", New York Times, October 9, 1988

No novelist is dearer to me than Robert Musil. He died one morning while lifting weights. When I lift them myself, I keep anxiously checking my pulse, and I am afraid of dropping dead, for to die with a weight in my hand like my revered author would make me an epigone so unbelievable, frenetic and fanatical as immediately to assure me of ridiculous immortality.

-- Milan Kundera, Immortality

Origin:

Epigone derives from Greek epigonos, from epigignesthai, to be born after, from epi-, "upon, after" + gignesthai, "to be born." The adjective form is epigonic.