Transferred Epithet: Meaning, Use, Examples, and Exercises with Answers

Transferred Epithet is a figure of speech, where an adjective, i.e., the describing word, which usually describes a person or subject in a sentence, is shifted to another noun (usually the object of the sentence).

In simple terms, with the help of a transferred epithet, instead of directly describing the noun it truly belongs to, the adjective in a sentence is transferred to a nearby noun to give more emotional, poetic, or dramatic effect to the sentence and make the meaning deeper.

Examples:

“He spent a sleepless night.”

In this sentence, the adjective is ‘sleepless’ which transferred from ‘He’ to ‘night’ to make the night feel restless or emotionless.

“She gave him a nervous smile.”

In this sentence, the adjective ‘nervous’ is transferred from ‘She’ to ‘smile’ to give the sentence more feeling and help understand the state of the girl’s mind.

Transferred Epithet is used in poems and literature to give them a deeper, emotional, or poetic effect. For example, in one of the famous poems by William Wordsworth, “The Solitary Reaper”, there’s one line, “Stop here, or gently pass!” where the adjective ‘gently’ is used to describe the act of passing; however, it reflects the poet’s mood. We can see transferred epithets in literature, too. For example, in “The anxious bench creaked under his weight” from ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens, the man is anxious, not the bench. But the adjective ‘anxious’ is transferred to the bench to depict the tension of the scene.

 Examples:

• “The unhappy courtier sighed all night.” – Twelfth Night by Shakespeare
• “Ode to a Nightingale.” – John Keats
• “I took the sighting road….” – The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
• “And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain….” – The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
• “He paid a lonely visit.” – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

1. To Express Emotions and Moods Indirectly

The basic motive of using a transferred epithet in a sentence or writing is to express someone’s emotions or mood without directly stating the emotion. It is usually done to make the sentence sound subtle, literary, and thoughtful. It also helps the reader or listener understand the emotion the character is going through.

Example:

1. “He looked at her with a questioning eye.”

In the above sentence, the eyes are not questioning, but the boy/guy is. This sentence indirectly expresses the state of mind or emotion of the boy.

2. “They walked on the tired road.”

This sentence indirectly expresses the tiredness of the people walking the road.

2. To Create an Imaginary Scenario

Transferred Epithets make the reader paint a picture that goes beyond the literal meaning of the words in their minds of the words. Simply put, by shifting the adjective to a different noun, we give emotion or human qualities to a non-human object or situation, which makes it more impactful.

Example:

1. “She left behind a broken promise.”

After reading this sentence, an image of a disheartened person comes to mind.

2. “The school echoes with cheerful voices.”

This sentence creates an image of the fun and happy faces of students in the school.

3. To Enhance the Beauty of Writing

Transferred Epithets enhance the beauty of the writing by giving an ordinary sentence a poetic twist. It does so by adding imagination and charm to the sentence, a paragraph, or writing. Additionally, placing the adjective in an unusual place in the sentence makes the line more memorable.

Example:

1. “The dusty book held forgotten memories.”

This sentence beautifully describes the forgotten memories instilled in the book.

2. “They walked in the angry sea.”

This sentence adds a bit of a dramatic effect by showing the emotional weight of the people through the angry sea.

4. To Engage Readers

By shifting the adjective of a sentence from one noun to another, transferred epithets give depth to the line. With a twist in the placement of the adjective, it allows readers to carefully read the sentence to interpret its meaning, by increasing its complexity. This allows the author to get more reader engagement.

Example:

1. “A nervous silence filled the room.”
2. “The guilty door creaked open slowly.”

Also Read:

Rules of Metaphors	Apostrophe as Figure of Speech	English Simile Types
Examples of Puns	What is Euphemism?	Types of Alliteration
Hyperbole Rules in English	Definition of Metonymy	Types of Moods in English

In English Grammar, Transferred Epithet and Personification may sound the same. However, they have some distinctions between them. Check out the table below to know how a transferred epithet is different from personification.

Basis	Transferred Epithet	Personification
Meaning	It is a figure of speech where an adjective is transferred from the actual subject to the noun.	It is a figure of speech that gives human qualities or actions to a non-human thing.
Focus	The main focus is on transferring the epithet (adjective)	The main focus is on giving human actions or traits to places, objects, ideas, or animals.
Emphasis on	Transfers the mood or emotion indirectly.	Shows human-like behavior directly.
Purpose	Transferred Epithet in a sentence is used to bring emotional depth or poetic effect.	Personification is to make the writing dramatic, vivid, or imaginative. It is done by animating objects.
Commonly Used in	Poems, Emotional Prose, and Descriptions (Tragic or Romantic)	Poems, Stories, Descriptive & Imaginative Writing, and Fables.
Types of Words Used	Adjectives	Verbs or Actions
Example	“She wore a guilty expression.”	“The sun smiled down at us.”

Transferred Epithet Examples:

• She had a bitter experience.
• He was in a hopeless situation.
• She took a nervous step
• I spent a quiet afternoon

Personification Examples:

• The wind whispered through the trees.
• Time flew by so quickly.
• Mumbai city never
• The thunder roared in anger.

Identifying a transferred epithet in a sentence takes a few simple steps. Find out these steps in the space below.

1. Identify the Adjective

Read the sentence carefully and identify the describing word, i.e., the adjective. It can be a word describing or modifying a noun or a pronoun.

For example,

• They walked in a cheerful garden.

In this sentence, the adjective is ‘cheerful’.

• She let out a nervous laugh during the interview.

In this sentence, the adjective is 'Nervous'.

2. Check if the Adjective is with a Noun

A sentence may have more than one adjective, so find out the adjective that is used with a noun. The adjective describing the noun, but not making any logical sense, will be the adjective you need. A noun is a word representing a name, place, animal, or thing.

For example,

• They walked in a cheerful garden.

Here, the adjective is ‘cheerful’ and the noun is ‘garden’; however, cheerful does not logically describe the garden, as a garden cannot be cheerful.

• The students listened to the boring lecture with drooping eyes.

Here, the adjective is ‘boring’ and the noun is ‘students’; however, the lecture isn't actually boring. It describes the students' perception of the lecture.

3. Find the Actual Logical Connection

Now that we have identified the adjective with a mismatched noun, find out the noun that the adjective should logically describe. For this, look for the noun that is actually experiencing the described quality. A sentence will have a transferred epithet only if it does not make logical sense but somehow you understand the depth of it.

For example,

• They walked in a cheerful garden.

In this sentence, logically, ‘they’ are cheerful.

• He placed a careless signature at the bottom of the contract.

In this sentence, logically 'he' was careless, not the signature.

4. Understand the Meaning of the Sentence

Trasnferred Epithets are used to describe the feelings or emotions of a subject by transferring the adjective to a different noun. Read out the sentence or the consecutive lines again and try to understand the overall meaning of the sentence or the paragraph. Once you do that, you can easily understand the mood or emotion indirectly shown in the sentence. 

For example,

• They walked in a cheerful garden.

The meaning or context for a paragraph with this sentence may describe that the people are happy about something and are taking a walk in the garden. That’s why ‘cheerful’ is added to show their emotional state.

• Under the sleepy moonlight, the forest seemed to hum a lullaby.

This sentence does not signify that the moon is literally sleepy. It describes the mood of the scene by transferring the adjective 'sleepy' to the moonlight.

5. Look for Emotional Sense

Now, check whether the sentence is making sense emotionally or not. In transferred epithet, if a sentence expresses a feeling or sensation through an inanimate object or an abstract concept, instead of a person or animal, it is for sure, transferred epithet. If that's not the case, check for other figures of speech in the sentence.

 For example,

• They walked in a cheerful garden.

This sentence expresses the ‘cheerful’ feeling of the people, which is shown through the garden.

• They took a happy risk and started their dream business.

This sentence expresses the 'happy' feeling of the people.

6. Ensure the Sentence is not Personification

As discussed above, a transferred epithet is often confused with personification. Ensure that the sentence is not an example of personification. Take help from these points to know the difference:

• Personification gives human qualities to non-human things.
• Transferred Epithet transfers the adjective from one noun to another.

Check out some transferred epithet examples from Movies & TV Shows:

• “He walked through the troubled night.” – Harry Potter
• “A desperate silence hung between them.” – Fault in Our Stars
• “It was a long, awkward silence.” – F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
• “A bored mind needs a challenging case.” - Sherlock
• “He walked through the nervous hallway, gripping the flashlight.” – Stranger Things

Also Read:

• What are Auxiliary and Modal Verbs?
• Rules of Gerunds in English Grammar

Understand transferred epithet with the help of some examples:

1. He gave me a cold stare.
2. They enjoyed a lazy afternoon.
3. She wrote with a trembling hand.
4. He made a foolish decision.
5. We walked on the lonely road.
6. He was lost in a confused state.
7. He waited with a hopeful heart.
8. We heard the happy bells ring.
9. She walked down the deserted lane with a heavy heart.
10. She listened to the angry wind.

These books can help understand the meaning of transferred epithet, but to master the topic, students should read different poems, literature, stories, etc., to analyze how authors, poets, or writers use transferred epithets.

Book Name	Author Name
Transferred Epithet in Modern English Prose	Peter Rickard
Grammar Geek	Michael Powell
Compact English Prosody and Figures of Speech	Nilanko Mallik
The King's Grammar	Sanjay Kumar Sinha

Students can take help from these English books to understand the concept of transferred epithet clearly.

Also Read:

Abstract Noun Grammar Books

Grammar Books for Collective Nouns