adulation

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Do you march to the beat of a different drummer? Discover 
where this term came from in our Dictionary of Allusions.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?allusion.htm&6
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The Word of the Day for March 15 is:

adulation   \aj-uh-LAY-shun\   noun
     : excessive or slavish admiration or flattery

Example sentence:
     The star was somewhat embarrassed by the adulation of his 
teenage fans.

Did you know? 
     If "adulation" makes you think of a dog panting after its 
master, you're on the right etymological track; the word 
ultimately derives from the Latin verb "adulari," meaning "to 
fawn on" (a sense used specifically of the affectionate behavior 
of dogs) or "to flatter." "Adulation," which came to us from 
Latin by way of Old French, can be traced back as far as the 
14th century in English. The verb "adulate," the 
noun "adulator," and the adjective "adulatory" later joined the 
language.