隽语(Epigram)是英语语言学分支英语修辞学的重要术语。英文定义为：short poem or saying expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way.即短而机智之妙语，名言警句。举例如下：
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
-----Oscar wild(1854----1900)
一个愤世嫉俗的人知道所有东西的价格，却不知道他们的价值。
A fantic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
-----Winston Churchill(1871-----1947)
狂热分子就是一个既无法改变心意，又不肯改变话题的人。
A favor tardily bestowed is no favor.
-----Ausonius(310?-----395?)
延迟施予人的好处就不能算是恩惠了。
A man never disclose his own character so clearly as when he describes another's.
-----Jean Paul Richter(1763--1825)
一个人在描述他人的个性时，最容易将自己的性格明白地显露出来。
A place for everything,and everything in its place.
-----Samuel Smiles(1812---1904)
凡事包容则万物各得其所
A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wound green.
-----Francis Bacon(1561--1626)
一个处心积虑要报复的人，使自己的创口永远鲜明。
A proverb is much matter decocted into few words.
-----Thomas Fuller(1608--1661)
格言就是许多事熬成少许几个字。
A short cut to riches is to subtract from our desires.
----Petrarch(1304--1374)
致富的快捷方式之一是寡欲
A small debt makes a man your debtor,a large one makes him your enemy.
------------Seneca(B.C.4?--65A.D.)
借人小钱你不过多了一位债务人；借人大钱却反替自己制造了一个敌人。
A thing is not vulgar merely because it is common.
------William Hazlitt(1778--1830)
事物不因常见就粗鄙。
Absence extinguishes small passions and increase great ones,as the wind will blow out a candle,and blow in a fire.
----La Rochefoucauld(1613--1680)
如风吹烛则熄，吹火则旺，分离吹熄小感情，吹旺大感情。
Action is eloquence.
----Shakespeare(1564--1616)
行动就是雄辩
All cruelty springs from weakness.
------Seneca(4?B.C.---65A.D.)
所有的残酷生自软弱
All for one,one for all
----Alexandre Dumas(1802--1870)
万有归于一，道一以贯之。
Ambition can creep as well as soar.
---Edmund Burke(1729--1797)
野心能匍匐亦能升腾（野心家能屈能伸）。
As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living.
--- G.B.Shaw(1856--1950)
只要我还有欲望，就有活下去的理由。
As you are old and reverend, you should be wise.
---William Shakespeare(1564--1616)
既然你年长而受到尊敬，就该放聪明点。
Be it ever so humble,there's no place like home.
--- John Howard Payne(1791--1852)
没有地方比家更好。
Character is destiny.
Heraclitus(a.B.C.500)
个性即命运。
Come back either with yourshield or upon it.
-----Plutarch(46?---120?)
带着你的盾牌，否则躺在上面回来（不成功便成仁）。
Epigram的构词法。字首 epi 源自希腊文副词与介系词 epi,在希腊文即为重要的字首,组成的单字非常多,但在英文里却不多. epi 的拼法也可变化为 ep,一般视后接的字根第一个音而定:字根第一个音若是母音或 h 子音,拼作ep,否则一律拼作 epi. 例如epoch n. [新纪元] (希腊文 epoche),及 ephemeral a. [短暂的] (希腊文ephemeros) 均如此.ephemeral 的名词为 ephemera,有 [朝生暮死] 的意思,照字首字根推断,ep 为upon,hemera 为 day,upon a day[生命只在朝夕之间],即知生命十分短促了.
ephemeral 短暂的
epidemic 流行,传染性的
epigram 隽语,短而机智之妙语
epilogue 结尾,收场白
episode 插曲
epistle 书信
epitaph 墓志铭体的诗文,墓志铭
epithet 附加於人名后之描述词
epitome 典型,缩影
epoch 纪元,时期,时代
