symbolatry

Etymology

From symbol + -latry.

symbolatry means the worship of symbols. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 83 out of 100.

Why “symbolatry” is a great word

SYMBOLATRY — [Noun] The worship of, or excessive devotion to, symbols as objects of veneration in themselves. From English symbol (from Latin symbolum, "token, sign") and the suffix -latry (from Greek -latria, "worship"), formed by analogy with idolatry. Unlike idolatry (which denotes the worship of physical idols as deities) or symbology (which is the dispassionate study of signs), symbolatry is the feverish salute to a flag until the cloth matters more than the country, the hushed ritual before a corporate logo in the city's dusk, and the tender preservation of a wedding ring long after the marriage has dissolved—a quiet confession that we often prefer the map to the territory, finding hollow solace in the signifier alone.

noun

The worship of symbols.“And then, upon this thoroughly baseless assumption, the critic proceeds to read all of us a lecture upon our sacrilegious symbolatry, and the dreadful abyss into which we are hurrying with fatal velocity.”