eulogy means an oration to honor a deceased person, usually at a funeral.
eulogy is pronounced /ˈjuː.lə.d͡ʒi/.
Why “eulogy” is a great word
A speech or piece of writing that praises someone, especially one delivered at a funeral. From Late Latin eulogia and Medieval Latin eulogium, from Ancient Greek εὐλογία (eulogía, "praise"), from εὖ (eu, "good, well") + -λογία (-logía, "speaking"). Unlike an elegy (a lyrical song of sorrow) or criticism (a judicial weighing of faults), a eulogy is the deliberate construction of a final, burnished memory. It is the trembling hand clutching paper at a lectern, the collective intake of breath at a shared, tender memory, the careful arrangement of words like flowers on a coffin—a final, fragile monument built not of stone but of air, our collective agreement to let the living speak well of what time has already begun to erase.
Etymology
From Middle English wloge (“commendation of the virtues of a deceased person”), from Latin eulogium, apparently from a confusion between ēlogium (whence English elogium, elogy) and eulogia (from Ancient Greek εὐλογία (eulogía, “praise”), whence English eulogia); equivalent to eu- + logia ("good words"). Doublet of eulogium.
noun
- An oration to honor a deceased person, usually at a funeral.
- Speaking highly of someone or something; the act of praising or commending someone or something.
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