Epigraphs

For part of a novel, I was writing those little quotation thingies you find at the beginnings of book chapters. I'd been trying, on the fly, to discover the correct name for weeks. Finally I could stand it no longer and went to Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves). In a roundabout fumbling with "term, quotation, book, beginning, and chapter" I fell into a fantastic page of terms.

There it was: "Epigraph 1. An inscription, especially on a building, statue, or the like. 2. An apposite quotation at the beginning of a book, chapter, etc." Of course then I had to visit the dictionary to ensure I had a handle on "apposite": adj. Strikingly appropriate and relevant. See Synonyms at relevant. And then they wrote: ... Apposite implies a striking appropriateness and pertinence: used apposite verbal images in the paper. Whew! What a lot of digging just to make up quotes. Writing fiction is hard work.

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