Adulation

noun

Extravagant, fawning, or inordinate praise or veneration

Usage

It's not uncommon to feel underappreciated, to think that no one notices all the little, everyday things you do. But as nice as it would be to get a little recognition every once in a while, consider that too much might be…well, pretty terrible, actually. Sure, the adulation might be nice at first, with excessively celebratory calls of "Sweet haircut!" and "You're AMAZING at scrambling eggs!" serving as a nice little ego boost. But chances are that, after a while, you'll start to find such fawning admiration bothersome. There's only so much adulation a person can take before the praise starts to ring hollow and the throngs of swooning fans get in the way.

Adulation is a word that describes over-the-top, fawning toadyism or approbation; essentially, it's fandom to the extreme. Commendation and esteem are usually desirable, but adulation is so fanatical that, ironically, it's often unflattering to those who give it, and sometimes not fully welcome by those who receive it. This kind of praise is understood to be overeager and excessive, often indicating that the givers have servilely foregone their self-respect. Adulation is often vapid or poorly thought-out - it's not the same as a thoughtful compliment or a sincere encomium. This explains, then, why it's often given by sycophants hoping to brown-nose their way up and throngs of people who have been caught up in the hero-worship mentality of a mob. A crowd of screaming tweens at a boy-band concert? A hapless guy who runs into his celebrity crush? A group of voters chanting an absurd campaign slogan? All are likely exhibitors of adulation.

Truthfully, everyone gives a little adulation sometimes; there's nothing wrong with being a tad idealistic or indulging in a bit of hero-worship every now and then. It often serves as an emotional outlet, and it's a nice counterpoint to stubborn criticism (another thing we're all guilty of). Just remember that, because it carries a note of irrationality, adulation should be taken with a grain of salt. Since it's usually based on an ideal rather than reality, adulation is so lofty, extreme, or consistent that no one could ever really earn it. Such massive praise is attractive to a lot of people, but, taken literally, it can easily go to someone's head. A popular athlete might be great on the field, but the adulation shown by star-struck fans throwing themselves at him and tattooing his name on their body parts is probably a little drastic.

Example: The rapper waved lazily at the crowd, basking in its adulation.

Example: I found my techie friend's adulation of Google products mystifying, as I could not even figure out how to turn off my Chromebook.

Example: The normally solitary painter found his patrons' adulation embarrassing.

Origin

Not to adulate, but here at WinEveryGame, we love dogs. We love how they yawn, how they're almost always up for walkies, and how they wag their tails when they're happy. However, while such behavior makes dogs awesome, it's significantly less becoming in people. You might, in fact, think of adulation as the human equivalent of tail-wagging, of showing obsequious servility to someone superior. That, at least, was the thought process of the Romans, who would create the Latin word aduliari by combining the prefix ad- ("to") with the word ulos, meaning "tail" (ulos comes from the Proto-Indo-European root, ul-, of the same meaning). One of the earliest ancestors of adulation, aduliari meant "to compliment or impress with praise," analogous with the way an obsequious (yet probably no less lovable) dog would beg and ingratiate itself with its master.

From aduliari would derive the Latin word adulationem, meaning "a pathetic show of flattery or servility," and the Old French adulacion of the same meaning. This last is the most direct ancestor of the modern English adulation, which arose in the fourteenth century.

Derivative Words

Adulate: This verb means to give obsequious praise and veneration. It is conjugated as adulates, adulated, and adulating.

Example: The famous zoologist narcissistically loved to hear his colleagues adulate him.

Example: The famous zoologist was most commonly adulated for his ground-breaking kangaroo research.

Example: These days, most of the people adulating the washed-up zoologist are graduate students angling for a sponsor.

Adulator: An adulator is someone who lavishes excessive, fawning flattery on another.

Example: Myra dreamed of performing on stage before thousands of devoted adulators.

Adulatory: This adjective characterizes someone or something (usually things like speeches or expressions) as servile and excessively complimentary.

Example: A group of adulatory supporters followed the politician on the campaign trail.

Example: Around election time, there always seems to be an increase in adulatory Tweets.

In Literature

From George Orwell's 1984:

Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph.

In this description, Orwell explains that the loyalists to his fictional dictatorship are expected to always have adulation, or "excessive or extreme admiration," for their country and government. Interestingly, this means that they are supposed to balance between being skilled and productive citizens and behaving mindlessly.

From Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory:

I was crazy about goal keeping. In Russia and the Latin countries, that gallant art had been always surrounded with a halo of singular glamour. Aloof, solitary, impassive, the crack goalie is followed in the streets by entranced small boys. He vies with the matador and the flying ace as an object of thrilled adulation.

Adulation is used here to describe the fawning, ecstatic admiration given to a talented goalie by soccer fans.

Mnemonic

Adulations are overdone ovations