Definitions

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

  • noun Good writing on a minor subject.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun fine writing in praise of trivial or base subjects

Etymologies

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Examples

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Comments

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  • adoxography

    n. eloquent praise of a worthless thing

    July 7, 2008

  • JM is honoured to be nominated for the Adoxography Awards.

    August 25, 2009

  • I wonder if you should filter out twitter hits for users who have a wordnik word as their username, as in @adoxography

    Just seems like clutter.

    Loving wordnik, btw.

    September 7, 2009

  • This word feels very British. There is an American sense that the British treat all subjects with equal gravitas, including things we would fine to be worthless.

    June 27, 2010

  • See: http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-ado1.htm for a discussion of the historical rhetorical-training practice that later came to be called adoxography. Put's me in mind of a book I am reading, "How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read," by Pierre Bayard. The tongue-in-cheek thesis is that you are better equipped to discuss a book if you have not read it.

    May 29, 2015

  • The root is Latin adoxus, paradoxical or absurd, but not from the classical language. It was first used by the Dutch scholar Erasmus around 1536, who took it from an identical ancient Greek word that meant inglorious. It was based on the root doxa, opinion or belief, which is also the basis of doxology, a formula of praise to God, and also of paradox.

    January 8, 2018