ALMXa short piece of writing on the stone over someone’s grave (=place in the ground where someone is buried) 墓志铭
Examples from the Corpus
epitaph• Her filmreplays in my head, as an epitaph to some one else's dream.• Susanna Highmore asked Elizabeth Carter to write a piece on Leapor, probably an epitaph.• He wanted it as his epitaph and left it in a letter passed to his parents on his death.• With that I sat down to write what would prove to be either my epitaph or my passport back to power.• It is a sadepitaph to Salvador Allende.• Local people found the epitaphunseemly and ostracised the Parsons.• It so happens that Parrhasios composed his own review for posterity, namely the epitaphinscribed on his tombstone.
Originepitaph
(1300-1400)Frenchépitaphe, from Greekepitaphion, from epi- (EPICENTER) + taphos“tomb, funeral”
ADJECTIVE | VERB + EPITAPH | PREPOSITION | PHRASESADJECTIVE➤fitting恰如其分的墓誌銘VERB + EPITAPH➤write寫悼文▸➤make, stand as成為遺作;作為紀念◇These movies stand as an epitaph to the great director.這些影片是這位偉大導演的遺作。PREPOSITION➤as an epitaph作為悼文◇He wanted these lines as his epitaph.他想把這些文字作為他的墓誌銘。➤epitaph for給⋯的悼詞◇She wrote the perfect epitaph for the poet.她為詩人寫了完美的悼詞。➤epitaph on (especially BrE) 關於⋯的悼詞◇Joyce's epitaph on King Edward VIII喬伊斯為國王愛德華八世寫的悼文➤epitaph to對⋯的紀念◇It makes a fitting epitaph to a great career.這成了一個偉大事業的最佳紀念。PHRASES➤be sb's epitaph是某人的墓誌銘