encomium

Published: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:15:01 EST

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 26, 2009 is:
encomium • \en-KOH-mee-um\ • noun
: glowing and warmly enthusiastic praise; also : an expression of this

Example sentence:
"The book is beautifully written and unquestioningly deserves the encomiums of critics who compared it to 'The Great Gatsby' for its elegiac tone." (David Milofsky, The Denver Post, August 2, 2009)

Did you know?
"The love of praise, howe're concealed by art / Reigns more or less, and glows in every heart." British writer Edward Young knew how much people love to hear praise -- and so did the ancient Greeks, the originators of "encomium." They formalized that particular expression of praise and named it an "enkōmion," from their terms "en," meaning "in," and "kōmos," meaning "celebration." The original encomiums were eulogies or panegyrics, often ones prepared in honor of a victor in the Olympics. The term was later broadened to refer to any laudatory ode. Since then encomiums have been written praising everyone from Julius Caesar to Elton John, although not all have been entirely serious -- one of the best known is the satirical "Moriae Encomium" ("Praise of Folly") by Erasmus.



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