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1 Definition
A formal public speech or piece of writing that offers elaborate praise for a person, event, or achievement.
2 In Use
The retiring CEO's farewell dinner turned into a two hour panegyric, with colleague after colleague listing her triumphs.
3 Word Origin
panegyrikos Gk. · fit for a public assembly → panegyricus Lat. · public praise oration → panegyric 16th c. English
Panegyric traces back to the Greek panegyrikos, describing something fit for a panegyris, a great public gathering or festival. Speeches delivered at these assemblies often praised gods, cities, or victorious athletes, and the adjective eventually hardened into a noun for the speech itself. Latin borrowed the term as panegyricus, and by the sixteenth century English writers had adopted it for any composition devoted to lofty, formal praise, whether of a monarch, a general, or a fallen hero.
đź’ˇFun Fact
Panegyrics were once a serious literary genre in their own right, with Roman orators like Pliny the Younger delivering formal panegyrics to praise emperors in front of the Senate, blending flattery with political strategy. The tradition survived into the Renaissance, when poets wrote panegyrics for kings and patrons hoping for favor or coin. Today the word has drifted slightly toward irony, often used to gently mock a eulogy or toast that lays the praise on a little too thick. It shares a root with 'pan,' meaning all, a fitting nod to speeches meant to cover every possible virtue of their subject.