Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person who delivers or writes an encomium; a eulogist.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who praises another; one who utters or writes encomiums or commendations; a panegyrist.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who praises; a panegyrist.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a person who delivers an encomium or eulogy

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek enkōmiastēs, from enkōmiazein, to praise, from enkōmion, encomium; see encomium.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἐγκωμιαστής.

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Examples

  • Shakespeare of course had no interest in the "distinctive principles of Western Civilization" (wouldn't have known what they were), did not in the least express something called the "Western vision," was certainly no "encomiast of his culture and society" (far from it), and sought to exemplify nothing but the possibilities of the forms in which he wrote and whatever personal "vision" of human existence he had managed to acquire.

    Canonical Writers 2008

  • Imbued with the righteous moral fervor of a revolutionary, the negativist — to introduce a new literary type — is more persuasive than the encomiast, who tends to resort to the bland, formulaic language of praise.

    James Atlas on Disparagement 2005

  • The encomiast after his manner appears to treat them as one.

    Agesilaus 2007

  • Imbued with the righteous moral fervor of a revolutionary, the negativist — to introduce a new literary type — is more persuasive than the encomiast, who tends to resort to the bland, formulaic language of praise.

    James Atlas on Disparagement 2005

  • A man of genius may securely laugh at a mode of attack, by which his reviler in half a century or less, becomes his encomiast

    Mocking Stupendous Mechanisms: Romantic Parody and Frankenstein's Dream 2003

  • From The Atlantic's Fiction Issue: Imbued with the righteous moral fervor of a revolutionary, the negativist -to introduce a new literary type- is more pesuasive than the encomiast, who tends to resort to the bland formulaic language of praise.

    Take THAT Mr McSweegee Miss Snark 2005

  • It would require some ingenuity to shew why women were to be under such an obligation to him for thus admitting love; when it is clear that he admits it only for the relaxation of men, and to perpetuate the species; but he talked with passion, and that powerful spell worked on the sensibility of a young encomiast.

    A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 2002

  • Noting that Caesar faced mutinies, Griffin dismisses me as an "overoptimistic encomiast" of the legionaries.

    O Mighty Caesar! Kahn, Arthur D. 1988

  • In fairness, should not Griffin have noted that an unreserved encomiast of Caesar's Gallic victories was Griffin's favorite, Cicero?

    O Mighty Caesar! Kahn, Arthur D. 1988

  • Imbued with the righteous moral fervor of a revolutionary, the negativist — to introduce a new literary type — is more persuasive than the encomiast, who tends to resort to the bland, formulaic language of praise.

    In Praise of Dispraise 1981

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