Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A proverbial expression; a proverb.
- n. An often-used word or phrase.
- n. One that represents a type, class, or quality: "Polyester got its déclassé reputation in the 1970s after cheap, poorly made double-knit leisure suits became a byword for bad taste” ( Fortune).
- n. An object of notoriety or interest: The eccentric poet was a byword in literary circles.
- n. An epithet.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A word or phrase used proverbially; especially, a saying used in mockery or disparagement; a satirical or contemptuous proverb.
- n. Hence An object of general reproach or condemnation; a common subject of derision or opprobrium.
- n. Synonyms Axiom, Maxim, etc. See aphorism.
Wiktionary
- n. a proverb or proverbial expression, common saying; a frequently used word or phrase
- n. a person who, or a thing that represents something with specified characteristics, byspel
- n. An object of notoriety or contempt.
- n. a nickname or epithet
- n. by extension an object of scorn or derision
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A common saying; a proverb; a saying that has a general currency.
- n. The object of a contemptuous saying.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a condensed but memorable saying embodying some important fact of experience that is taken as true by many people
Etymologies
- From Middle English byworde ("proverb"), from Old English bīword, bīwyrde ("proverb, household word", also "adverb"), from bī- ("by-") + word ("word"); probably a translation of Latin proverbium. Compare also Old High German pīwurti ("proverb"), Old English bīspel ("proverb, example"), bīcwide ("byword, proverb, tale, fable"). More at byspel. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English byworde, from Old English bīword, translation of Latin prōverbium. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“March 2nd, 2009 at 7: 50 pm antisera apart appropriation bankrupts begin byword counterparts coupler cranes devotedly Egyptian ellipse elm Epicurean Kidde miscarriage pixel rightfulness Samuels shutout Sonora substrate toughness buy generic viagraC/a absenteeism countess curious founts gab perusers playhouse prototypically summation.”
“The "Manchester school" of political economy has long since passed into reproach if not obloquy with people for whom a byword is a potent weapon, and perhaps the easiest they can handle, and”
“All's well' over and over again; 'twas a kind of byword with him.”
“Dario Fo once complained that "political theater has become a kind of byword for boring theater," he certainly wasn't talking about himself.”
“Only last month, Brown described Afghanistan as a "byword" for corruption.”
“There j'ai fait la connaissance de la mere de Kousma [Footnote: A jocular translation into French of a Russian slang byword "Kousma's Mother," popularly used to indicate a difficult plight.”
“Back in the early 1970s, it was a kind of byword for industrial-relations strife, poor quality, unreliability.”
“Access" to credit was the byword of banking regulation under Labour in the UK.”
“Beirut was at the center of the Lebanese war of 1975-90, when "Lebanonization" became a byword for violent disintegration.”
“• In aftermath of shooting, rising skepticism about American presence in Pakistan: Raymond Davis's name has become a byword for a presumed army of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of shadowy American operatives stalking Pakistani streets.”
The Washington Post: House spending bill cuts pay for overseas diplomats
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘byword’.
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Amalgamations
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keystone, touchstone, footprint, thunderhead, seesaw, textbook, leftovers, watchword, afterbirth, fieldwork, outcast, statesman and 148 more...
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