Encomium (pl.: encomia) is a Latin word deriving from the Ancient Greekenkomion (ἐγκώμιον), meaning "the praise of a person or thing."[1] Another Latin equivalent is laudatio, a speech in praise of someone or something.
Originally was the song sung by the chorus at the κῶμος, or festal procession, held at the Panhellenic Games in honour of the victor, either on the day of his victory or on its anniversary. The word came afterwards to denote any song written in celebration of distinguished persons, and in later times any spoken or written panegyric whatever.[2]
Encomium also refers to several distinct aspects of rhetoric:
A literary genre that included five elements: prologue, birth and upbringing, acts of the person's life, comparisons used to praise the subject, and an epilogue[citation needed]
The basilikos logos (imperial encomium), a formal genre in the Byzantine empire
Paul the Apostle uses a kind of encomium in his praise of love, in 1 Corinthians 13; the prologue is verses 1–3, acts are v. 4–7, comparison is v. 8–12, and epilogue is 13:13–14:1.[3]
The dictionary definition of encomium at Wiktionary