encomium

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The Word of the Day for November 12 is:

encomium   \en-KOH-mee-um\   noun
     : glowing and warmly enthusiastic praise; also : an 
expression of this

Example sentence:
     Charles Schulz certainly deserves the encomiums heaped upon 
him for his marvelous Peanuts comic strip, which has given so 
many so much joy and laughter.

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 "enkomion," 
from their terms "en," meaning "in," and "komos," 
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.