Pronounced: uh-FLAY-tuhs, noun
Notes: I don’t think I’ve ever run across this word
Yesterday’s word
The word panegyric means “a lofty oration or writing in praise of a person or thing; eulogy; formal or elaborate praise”
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1500s
Background / Comments
I am pretty sure that I’ve run across this word in reading, but no definite book or character comes to mind. Rex Stout had quite a vocabulary and sprinkles his works (the Nero Wolfe novels) with interesting words, so it may have been him. However, it may have been Dorothy Sayers in the Lord Peter Wimsey books; it seems like the kind of word she might use. Our word comes from the Latin word panēgyricus (of or belonging to a public assembly), which came from the Greek word panēgyrikós, from pan- (all) and ēgyris (gathering)
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 