eloge

Etymology

From French éloge, from Latin ēlogium. Doublet of elogy.

Why this word is great

ELOGE — [Noun] A formal expression of praise, particularly a scholarly tribute delivered by a new member of the French Academy in honor of their predecessor, or any commemorative discourse for the deceased. From French éloge, from Latin ēlogium ("inscription, short saying"), itself from Greek logos ("speech, word"). Unlike "eulogy" (which drapes personal grief in intimate oratory) or "panegyric" (which gilds living subjects with rhetorical excess), an eloge is a measured, almost architectural act of remembrance—a marble plaque of words. It is the hushed rustle of academic robes in the Institut de France, the precise incision of a biographer’s pen tracing a life’s contours, the quiet clink of a medal placed on a velvet cushion. To compose an eloge is to balance reverence against the silence that follows.

noun

  1. An expression of praise.
  2. A statement or disquisition in praise of someone who has died.“In a later éloge, Georges Cuvier called it, with pardonable exaggeration, ‘in some respects the last words of a dying Plato’.”
  3. Specifically, the statement made by a new member of the French Academy about his predecessor.