Explanation
An encomium is an elaborated speech of praise devoted to a person, object, action, or idea. Praise appears not as a single favourable adjective but as an ordered argument concerning origin, qualities, deeds, effects, and exemplary value. By selecting and intensifying, the speech also constructs standards of what a community regards as admirable. Encomium may establish memory, express gratitude, and render virtues visible; it may equally confirm power, suppress contradictions, or become propaganda. The concept therefore leads from the praised object to the value orders and interests that acquire public form in the act of praising.
Movement of thought
1. A person, object, action, or idea is selected as the subject of public appreciation. 2. The speech orders origin, qualities, achievements, and consequences into a positive overall configuration. 3. Particular features are related to shared values and heightened as exemplary or memorable. 4. A counter-test seeks omitted perspectives, conflicting effects, and the interests of the praising institution. 5. Praise returns as a public value judgement characterising both its object and the community that voices it.
Scientific use case
Rhetoric and history can examine topics of praise, procedures of selection, and institutional interests. Comparative analysis can reveal which virtues different periods and communities publicly canonise.
Example
A memorial speech honours a librarian not merely for long service but shows through concrete decisions how she opened access and preserved collections under threat.
Counterexample
“That was good” is praise but not yet an elaborated encomium. A factual biography without organising commendation is likewise not an encomium even when it includes positive facts.
Distinction
Distinguish encomium from compliment, panegyric, laudation, epideictic rhetoric, and biography. Encomium is an elaborated speech of praise; panegyric is often especially ceremonial and politically affirmative.
Effect on thought and perception
Encomium gathers recognition, forms exemplars and shared values, but selective idealisation can displace criticism and ambivalence.
Resonance
Praised action is excited anew in speech; its echo connects memory, present values, and the possibility of future imitation.
Cite this entry
Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Encomium“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-172-0005. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-172-0005The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.
Historical background
Aristotle distinguishes praise of character from encomium directed towards deeds, while allowing deeds to provide evidence of character. He also shows how advice about what someone should do can be recast as praise for having done it. That movement makes the historical analysis especially useful for the Atlas: commending an achievement can propose a norm for others. An original account praising a team for admitting an error may indirectly recommend transparency to its audience. The commendation still requires evidence that the admission occurred and had the significance assigned to it. Aristotle's distinctions do not cover every later encomium to an object or idea, which the Atlas permits. The English learned noun and the expansion of the genre therefore require histories beyond this translated ancient discussion.
How conceptual history changes the analysis
Ask which norm the praise recommends and verify the deed separately. Commendation can propose a standard without establishing that the achievement occurred.
References for the historical section
- Aristotle, Rhetoric; English translation by W. Rhys Roberts, Internet Classics Archive transcription · Rhetoric I.9, praise, deeds and encomium
Selected historical passage, not a complete genealogy or an English first attestation. Atlas examples and present-day countertests are editorial applications. Ancient argument inspected in English translation; Greek/Latin wording and manuscript transmission not independently collated. The online transcription contains apparent errors.
- Aristotle, Rhetoric; English translation by W. Rhys Roberts, Internet Classics Archive transcription · Rhetoric I.9, praise, deeds and encomium
Selected historical passage, not a complete genealogy or an English first attestation. Atlas examples and present-day countertests are editorial applications. Ancient argument inspected in English translation; Greek/Latin wording and manuscript transmission not independently collated. The online transcription contains apparent errors.