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paean

[pee-uhn]

noun

any song of praise, joy, or triumph.

a hymn of invocation or thanksgiving to Apollo or some other ancient Greek deity.

Origin:
1535–45; < Latin: religious or festive hymn, special use of Paean appellation of Apollo < Greek Paiā́n physician of the gods

Related forms

pae·an·ism, noun

Can be confused: paean, paeon, peon.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Paean is a GRE word you need to know.

So is eloquent. Does it mean:

having or exercising the power of fluent, forceful, and appropriate speech

an identifying outfit or style of dress worn by the members of a given profession, organization, or rank

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Example Sentences

At heart this romantic, melancholy tale is a paean to reading and to the life one person lives through books.

The Matrix trilogy was one long paean to data visualization.

For the book is not a paean to smallness.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

paean or sometimes (US) pean (ˈpiːən)

—n
1.	a hymn sung in ancient Greece in invocation of or thanksgiving to a deity
2.	any song of praise
3.	enthusiastic praise: the film received a paean from the critics

[C16: via Latin from Greek paiān hymn to Apollo, from his title Paiān, denoting the physician of the gods]

pean or sometimes (US) pean

—n

[C16: via Latin from Greek paiān hymn to Apollo, from his title Paiān, denoting the physician of the gods]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

paean

1592, from L. paean "hymn of deliverance," from Gk. paian "hymn to Apollo," from Paian, a name of the god; originally the physician of the gods (in Homer), later merged with Apollo; lit. "one who touches," from paio "to touch, strike."

Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia

paean

solemn choral lyric of invocation, joy, or triumph, originating in ancient Greece, where it was addressed to Apollo in his guise as Paean, physician to the gods. In the Mycenaean Linear B tablets from the late 2nd millennium BC, the word pa-ja-wo-ne is used as a name for a healer god. This god's name was later associated with Apollo and his son Asclepius.

Learn more about paean with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Matching Quote

"Avaunt! to-night my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise.
"But waft the angel on her flight with a paean of old days!
"Let no bell toll!—lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth,
"Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damned Earth.
"To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven—
"From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven—
"From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of
Heaven."

-Edgar Allan Poe

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