What is an epithet?

Answer 1

On Yahoo, this meaning is the one that applies:

"a word, phrase, or expression used invectively as a term of abuse or contempt, to express hostility, etc."

Answer 2

1a. A term used to characterize a person or thing, such as rosy-fingered in rosy-fingered dawn or the Great in Catherine the Great. b. A term used as a descriptive substitute for the name or title of a person, such as The Great Emancipator for Abraham Lincoln. 2. An abusive or contemptuous word or phrase. 3. Biology A word in the scientific name of an animal or plant following the name of the genus and denoting a species, variety, or other division of the genus, as sativa in Lactuca sativa.
ETYMOLOGY: Latin epitheton, from Greek, neuter of epithetos, added, attributed, from epitithenai, epithe-, to add to : epi-, epi- + tithenai, to place; see dh- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: epi·thetic, epi·theti·cal —ADJECTIVE

USAGE NOTE: Strictly speaking, an epithet need not be derogatory, but the term is commonly used as a simple synonym for term of abuse or slur, as in There is no place for racial epithets in a police officer's vocabulary. This usage is accepted by 80 percent of the Usage Panel.

Answer 3

It is what is written on somone's tombstone