Word of the Day

: August 18, 2018

adulation

noun aj-uh-LAY-shun

What It Means

: excessive or slavish admiration or flattery

adulation in Context

"It's hard to imagine the safest environment being one where thousands of people are within feet of you and millions more are watching your every move. But that was the case with Tiger Woods. … When he played, he was wrapped in a blanket of admiration, adulation and respect." — Frank Nobilo, Golf Digest, November 2017

"I am very shy from the attention more so than I anticipated. Growing and increasing with time, the more adulation or positive feedback I get, the more reclusive I feel, which is really not something I anticipated." — Lorin Ashton, quoted in Billboard, 9 June 2017

Did You Know?

If adulation makes you think of a dog panting after its master, you're on the right etymological track; the word ultimately derives from the Latin verb adulari, meaning "to fawn on" (a sense used specifically of the affectionate behavior of dogs) or "to flatter." Adulation, which came to us from Latin by way of Old French, can be traced back as far as the 15th century in English. The verb adulate, the noun adulator, and the adjective adulatory later joined the language.