epeolatry en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ɛpiˈɒlətɹi/
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ἔπος (épos, “word”) + -latry (“worship of”). The first citation of the word is from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., in his 1860 book The Professor at the Breakfast-Table.
Meanings
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(rare, uncountable) The worship of words.
I read my dictionary for a few more minutes, until tiredness eventually brought my epeolatry to an end for the day.
2006, Roger Day, Anurada Negotiates Our Wobbly Planet, Lulu:Time, time only, can gradually wean us from our Epeolatry, or word-worship, by spiritualizing our ideas of the thing signified.
1860, Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast-table: With The Story of Iris, Ticknor and Fields, page 147:It is said that the first requisite for a successful politician is to be able to invent nicknames for an adversary; and before now a neatly turned expression has overthrown Governments in France. Epeolatry is the fashion of the day.
1906, Patrick Augustine Sheehan, “Emerson: Free-Thought in America”, in Early Essays and Lectures, Longmans, Green, and Company, page 45: