Fwd: "prosopopoeia, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

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Your word for today is: prosopopoeia, n.

prosopopoeia, n.
[‘ A rhetorical device by which an imaginary, absent, or dead person
is represented as speaking or acting; the introduction of a pretended
speaker; an instance of this. Now rare.’]
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌprɒsə(ʊ)pəˈpiːə/,  U.S. /prəˌsoʊpəˈpiə/, /ˌprɑsəpəˈpiə/
Forms:  15 prosopopeya,   15 prosopopoiia,   15–16 prosopopaeia,
15–16 prosopopaia,   15–16 prosopopoia,   15–17 prosopopoea,   15–
prosopopeia,   15– prosopopoeia,   16 prosopopaea,   16 prosopopeiae,
 16 prosopopoeja.
Etymology: <  classical Latin prosōpopoeia speech composed and
delivered in the character of another person, impersonation
(Quintilian), in post-classical Latin also representation of inanimate
or abstract thing as speaking or as displaying other characteristics
of an animate, conscious being (from 13th cent. in British sources) <
Hellenistic Greek προσωποποιία <  ancient Greek πρόσωπον face, person
(see prosopon n.) + -ποιία -poeia comb. form. Compare Italian
prosopopea (1308). Compare prosopopey n.
 1. A rhetorical device by which an imaginary, absent, or dead person
is represented as speaking or acting; the introduction of a pretended
speaker; an instance of this. Now rare.
1550  R. Sherry Treat. Schemes & Tropes sig. E.iii, These foresayd
sixe kindes [of rhetorical description] Quintiliane dothe put vnder
Prosopopeia.
1561  J. Daus tr. H. Bullinger Hundred Serm. vpon Apocalips xxxii. 199
We vnderstande these thinges to be spoken by a figure called
Prosopopeia: that is by the fayning of a persone.
a1586  Sir P. Sidney Apol. Poetrie(1595) sig. B4v, His notable
Prosopopeias, when he maketh you as it were, see God comming in his
Maiestie.
1609  R. Bernard Faithfull Shepheard(new ed.) 67 Prosopopeia; the
feigning of a person: when wee bring in dead men speaking, or our
selues doe take their person vpon vs, or giue voice vnto senselesse
things.
1647  J. Sprigge Anglia Rediviva(1854) Addr. 8 Feigned speeches,
prosopopeias and epistrophes.
1699 Protestant Mercury 28 Apr.–3 May No. 365. 2/2 Also Rules for
making Colloquies, Essays, Fables, Prosopopaia's.
1759 Dict. Holy Bible II. 591/1 Then, by a beautidul prosopopoeia, he
introduces the dead greeting his arrival among them.
1787  G. Gregory tr. R. Lowth Lect. Sacred Poetry Hebrews(1816) I.
xiii. 280 Prosopopœia, or Personification. Of this figure there are
two kinds: one, when action and character are attributed to
fictitious, irrational, or even inanimate objects; the other, when a
probable but fictitious speech is assigned to a real character.
1877  J. Morley Crit. Misc. 2nd Ser. 153 This is his one public
literary Equivocation..it was resorted to..to give additional weight
by means of a harmless prosopopoeia to an argument for the noblest of
principles.
1922  L. H. Wild Let. Guide Bible ii. iii. 47 Prosopopoeia,
representing an actual or ideal person as present or speaking.
1995  D. Donoghue Walter Pater xviii. 201 She summons him to appear,
as in the rhetorical figure of prosopopoeia.
 2.
 a. A figure of speech by which an inanimate or abstract thing is
represented as a person, or as having personal characteristics, esp.
the power to think or speak; an instance of this; = personification n.
1.
Formerly an aspect of sense 1: see quots. 1609, 1787.
1563  R. Reynolds Foundacion of Rhetorike f. 50, Concerning
Prosopopœia, it is..when to any one againste nature, speache is
feigned to bee giuen.
1578  T. Tymme tr. J. Calvin Comm. Genesis 142 Clemency and
gentleness..is attributed therevnto, by a figure called Prosopopoiia
[Gk. κατα προσωποπιιας].
1649  F. Roberts Clavis Bibliorum(ed. 2) 276 The universall triumph
and gladnesse as it were of all creatures (in an elegant Prosopopeia)
is intimated.
1676  T. Shadwell Virtuoso i. 9 He makes Flowers, nay, Weeds, speak
eloquently, and, by a noble kind of Prosopopeia, instruct Mankind.
1732  G. Berkeley Alciphron I. v. xxii. 314 Sentiments, and Vices,
which by a marvellous Prosopopœia he converts into so many Ladies.
1758  T. Leland Hist. Reign Philip King of Macedon iv. 148 He makes
use of a remarkably beautiful prosopopoeia, and imagines that the
several powers of Greece thus call on the Athenians to account for
their conduct.
1884  A. Lambert in 19th Cent. June 947 Prosopopœia has no place even
in popular science.
1885 Mind 10 150 The Prosopopœia is written in the form of a
contention before judges between the soul and the body.
1911 Mod. Lang. Notes 26 165/2 A ‘Prosopopoeia’, in which the Lover's
Heart addresses the Breast of his second Lady.
1992  M. Blonsky Amer. Mythologies xviii. 451 He's completely changed
the face of the city—there it is, the face, a prosopopeia, the trope
that fools us that the thing we're struggling with is as stable as our
own reassuring faces.
†b. In extended use: a person or thing in which some quality or
abstraction is embodied; the embodiment or epitome of something. Obs.
1825  B. Disraeli Let. 12 Nov. (1982) 49 A man, who might fairly be
considered as a very prosopopeia of the Public Press.
1857  P. St. G. Cooke Scenes & Adventures in Army xxii. 156 The
militia (that prosopopoeia of weakness, waste, and confusion) had been
called out.
1867  G. A. Macfarren Six Lect. Harmony iv. 149 Everywhere at
once..the prosopopœia of ubiquity.
Derivatives

 prosopoˈpoeial adj. = prosopopoeic adj.
1577  H. I. tr. H. Bullinger 50 Godlie Serm. II. iv. iii. sig.
Ddd.iii/2, To this place now doe belong the Prosopopeiall speeches of
God [L. Dei prosopopœiæ.].
1652  T. Urquhart Εκσκυβαλαυρον 278, I could have used,..Apostrophal
and Prosopopœial diversions.

1991 Jrnl. Musicol. 9 190 The prosopopoeial evocation of the dead.
2001 Columbia Law Rev. 101 1879 The gift is prosopopoeial; in Part II,
speaking from beyond the grave, it tells us that no amount of
theoretical dirt will completely fill the holes or gaps in the legal
stories about who gives what to whom.
 prosopoˈpoeic adj. of, relating to, or involving prosopopoeia.
1883  H. Cotterill Does Science Aid Faith? 57 A poetic and prosopopœic
representation of the attribute of Divine wisdom.
1950 Jrnl. Rom. Stud. 40 20 It is suitable to contrast the
prosopopoeic virtuosity of Thucydides' other disciple, the Roman
Sallust.
2000 Renaissance Q. 53 171 Lanyer also uses the prosopopoeic
description of Cooke-ham to idealize the Countess's estate.
†prosopopoeical adj. Obs. = prosopopoeic adj.
1576  A. Fleming Panoplie Epist. Argt. 192 He hath a Prosopopoical
speach to his countrie.
1657  J. Smith Myst. Rhetorique 149 Thus in Joel 2. from 1. to the 12.
ver. you have a most lively Rhetorical Prosopopoeical description of
the terrible Army of the Babylonians.
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