European received simple epitaph, perhaps writing his own eulogy? (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
ego trip
'writing his own eulogy?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'european received simple epitaph' is the wordplay.
'european' becomes 'E' (abbreviation e.g. EU).
'received' becomes 'got' ('get' can be a synonym of 'receive').
'simple epitaph' becomes 'rip' (rest in peace. I am not sure about the 'simple' bit.).
'e'+'got'+'rip'='EGO-TRIP'
'perhaps' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ego trip that I've seen before include "Act done to increase one's self-importance" , "Something done to raise self-importance" , "Activity boosting one's self-importance" , "Action that inflates one's self-importance" , "Got ripe (anag.)" .)