phaleristics means the study of orders, fraternity, and award items. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “phaleristics” is a great word
PHALERISTICS — [Noun] The systematic study and connoisseurship of orders, medals, ribbons, and other military or civil decorations. From German *Phaleristik* (20th century), from Latin *phalera* ("metal disk or boss worn as a military decoration"), from Ancient Greek *Φάληρος* (*Phálēros*, "Phalerus, a mythological hero"). Unlike "numismatics," which catalogs the currency of commerce, or "vexillology," which deciphers the language of banners, phaleristics is the archaeology of honor made tangible. It is the cool, enameled weight of a star on velvet, the precise archival of a ribbon's faded color, and the silent narrative held in a small, gilded cross—a quiet taxonomy of how societies mint their gratitude and how individuals wear their histories, each piece a small, hard knot in the fraying cord of memory.
Etymology
From German Phaleristik, from Latin phalera, from Ancient Greek Φάληρος (Phálēros, “Phalerus, a mythological hero”).
noun
- The study of orders, fraternity, and award items.“For a longer and less well-focused systematising definition of the themes of phaleristics, see Attila Pandula, 'Orden und Auszeichnungen — Besondere Spiegelbilder der Geschichte', in Das Erste und Zweite Gunzenhäuser Phaleristik-Symposium (Offenach am Main, 1997), 16-21).”