Friday word: Paean

[med_cat]

paean, n. \ˈpē-ən\

any song of praise, joy, or triumph.
a hymn of invocation or thanksgiving to Apollo or some other ancient Greek deity.

Examples:

The sunlight was flooding in at the open lattice and, as if borne upon this shaft of glory, came the mingled fragrance of herb and flower and ripening fruit with the blithe carolling of birds, a very paean of thanksgiving ... Jeffery Farnol, The Amateur Gentleman, 1913

"I am ten thousand cathedrals rolled into one," waxed poet Alfred Bryan in a 1921 paean to the Grand Canyon. And indeed, this place has a singular ability to awe and inspire. Steve Howe, "Adventure Guide: Grand Canyon," Backpacker, December 2004

Etymology:

Greek
1535-1545

Paean entered English in the 1500s by way of Latin from Greek Paián, Paiṓn, which in classical antiquity was an appellation of Apollo, to whom hymns of victory or thanksgiving were addressed.

Comments

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

And before an becoming epithet of Apollo (and later Asclepius), Paian was in Homer a separate figure, the physician of the gods who heals Hades and Ares in Iliad 5. Or as another Homeric fragment puts it, "Leave Phoibos [Apollon] undisturbed in Olympos ... Send me Paieon [instead], if it be your pleasure."

</pedantry>

A paeon to you for this one!

[med_cat]

Fascinating! I never knew that; thank you :)