[Publib] "what is the word for..?" stumper

[Charli Osborne]

There are a couple of different ways to look at this, but the most
straightforward definition I found was "verb". A verb describes that
existential state of being, encompassing all versions of "to be"
including those funky ones like seem and smell.

Another possibility is personification, the attribution to a
non-animate thing of human attributes. The thing personified is often
an abstract concept (e.g. 'Lust'). Personification is related to
allegory, insofar as personification says one thing ('Lust possessed
him') and really means another. But it is opposed to allegory insofar
as it aims for the maximum degree of explicitness, whereas allegory
necessarily involves greater degrees of obliquity. (from the
University of Cambridge Virual Glossary of Literary Terms)

HTH!

Charli
-- 
Charli Osborne
Head of Teen Services
Oxford Public Library
Oxford, MI
248 628-3034
248 969-9492 fax
charli.osborne at gmail.com

On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 10:54 AM, Tom Cipullo <cipullot at pbclibrary.org> wrote:
> here is the question: "What is a word that describes a thing, a state of being as a thing?"
>
> this was over the phone; the best I could get is that there is a term (not a literary term) for when you use a state of being to describe a thing.  (he used the word "thing" a few times.)  He did not have an example, or he did, but he took it back: "human," when he realized that wasn't what he meant.
>
> he didn't like "eponymous" (which is the name a person to describe a thing).  maybe it's a grammatical term?
>
> so "what do you call it when a term for a state of being is used to describe a thing?"
>
>
> (sorry. if I knew of another place to post this I would. I'm just curious to know if someone knows this.)
>
>
> tom cipullo
> Palm Beach County Library System, Main Library
>
>
>
>
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