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prosopopeia (n.)

also prosopopoeia, 1560s, from Latin prosopopoeia, from Greek prosōpopoiia "the putting of speeches into the mouths of others," from prosōpon "person; face; dramatic character," etymologically "that which is toward the eyes," from pros "to" (see pros-) + ōps "eye, face" (from PIE root *okw- "to see") + poiein "to make, form, do" (see poet). Generally, a rhetorical figure in which an imaginary or absent person, or abstraction or inanimate character, is made to speak or act. Sometimes Englished as prosopopy (1570s).

also from 1560s
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Trends of prosopopeia

updated on December 16, 2020

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