Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A second-rate imitator or follower, especially of an artist or a philosopher.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One born after; a successor or heir.
  • noun Same as epigonium.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A follower or disciple.
  • noun An undistinguished or inferior imitator of a well known artist or their style.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an inferior imitator of some distinguished writer or artist of musician

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French épigone, sing. of épigones, from Greek Epigonoi, sons of the seven heroes against Thebes, from pl. of epigonos, born after : epi-, epi- + gonos, child, seed; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French épigones, from Latin epigonī, from Ancient Greek ἐπίγονοι (epigonoi), plural form of ἐπίγονος (epigonos, "born after"), from ἐπιγίγνομαι (epigignomai, "I come after"), from ἐπί (epi, "upon"), from γίγνομαι (gignomai, "I become").

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Examples

  • I'll bet you didn't know that, after reading Bérubé's latest post about thought,I now aspire to be referred to as an "epigone" of some yet-to-be-determined person.

    Archive 2006-06-01 Heo 2006

  • I'll bet you didn't know that, after reading Bérubé's latest post about thought,I now aspire to be referred to as an "epigone" of some yet-to-be-determined person.

    Wherein My Stream of Consciousness Becomes More Random Than Ever Before Heo 2006

  • He is no longer just the arch mannerist, the etiolated epigone of Michelangelo, perverse and stylised in equal measure.

    Bronzino's Medici portraits – review James Hall 2010

  • In a curious irony of history, an epigone frequently becomes better known than his/her illustrious namesake and predecessor.

    The other (and greater) Moctezuma I 2008

  • In a curious irony of history, an epigone frequently becomes better known than his/her illustrious namesake and predecessor.

    The other (and greater) Moctezuma I 2008

  • But then neither did Fichte and Schelling and Kant and Hegel and Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and Heidegger; but their differences are family feuds, and the same is true of their "Catholic" epigone.

    Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta chairman of the SSPX commission 2009

  • The celebrated philosophical essays ( "The Myth of Sisyphus," The Rebel) are the work of an extraordinarily talented and literate epigone.

    There's Something Wrong with Sven 2009

  • Carmela was trying to get her Linux booted Treo 700's calendaring app to work in a Epeus 'epigone way: "This means you can take hCalendar and hCard data from the web into Outlook, into MSN's Live calendar application, and connect other apps data into and out of the browser in a nice user-obvious way."

    The 2.0 Sopranos Family $1.99 on Itunes Ben Barren 2006

  • Carmela was trying to get her Linux booted Treo 700's calendaring app to work in a Epeus 'epigone way: "This means you can take hCalendar and hCard data from the web into Outlook, into MSN's Live calendar application, and connect other apps data into and out of the browser in a nice user-obvious way."

    Archive 2006-03-01 Ben Barren 2006

  • I wrote a long paper last fall which you can find here in which I make out Gore as an epigone of Heidegger.

    enowning enowning 2007

Comments

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  • A second-rate imitator or follower, especially of an artist or a philosopher.

    French épigone, from Greek Epigonoi, sons of the seven heroes against Thebes, from pl. of epigonos, born after.

    September 10, 2007

  • Great word, trivet!

    September 10, 2007

  • If I copy this word from you, does that make me one?

    September 12, 2007

  • If it did, you'd at least be elegantly named. :-)

    September 12, 2007

  • I'm no wordinista - yoink away.

    September 12, 2007

  • Cf. epitome.

    September 7, 2009

  • Come back, all is forgiven.

    October 17, 2009

  • The "singer" Taylor Swift is a epigone of Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks...

    February 22, 2010

  • "the very obvious references to eero saarinen and S.O.M. may have secured jacobsen's name as a cool modernist at the time, but they also made him look like an epigone with a deft hand at furniture design, a view of jacobsen you can still meet, not least here in denmark."

    See

    October 11, 2010

  • I love this word.

    December 8, 2010

  • "In another twist to the myth, his Head of Department, the ageless and loathsome Vermishank, was not a plodding epigone but an exceptional bio-thaumaturge, who had nixed Isaac's research less because it was unorthodox than because it was going nowhere." From Perdido Street Station by China Meiville.

    September 18, 2011

  • that Vermishank. What an unctuous bastard.

    September 18, 2011

  • Heh. Yeah. Total douche bag.

    September 18, 2011

  • He copied the language and tone

    The goblin prefers on the phone,

    But, lacking the bite

    Of soul-searing spite,

    The Mooch proved a pale epigone.

    August 7, 2017