ˈhero-ˌworship, n.
The worship or adoration of heroes: a. of the deified heroes of antiquity and mythology; b. of heroic men generally.
| 1774 Burney Hist. Mus. I. 207 (Jod.) To the adoration of these [sun, moon, and stars] succeeded hero-worship in the deification of dead kings and legislators. 1796 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. II. 778 Can it then be really true that hero-worship is a rational sort of idolatry? c 1820 S. Rogers Italy, Meillerie 62 Records of the past That prompt to hero-worship. 1840 Carlyle (title) On Heroes, Hero-worship and the heroic in History. |
So ˈhero-ˌworship v. trans., to worship as a hero; also ˈhero-ˌworshipful a., ˈhero-ˌworshipper.
| 1857 Hughes Tom Brown ii. viii, He marched down to the School-house, a hero-worshipper, who would have satisfied the soul of Thomas Carlyle himself. 1865 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 278, I have seldom seen a foolisher hero-worshipper. 1884 Edna Lyall We Two xxii. (1889) 184 Tell him..that you hero-worship Sir Michael Cunningham, the statesman of the age. 1914 G. B. Shaw Pygmalion (1916) 195 The weak may not be admired and hero-worshipped; but they are by no means disliked and shunned. 1918 Beerbohm And even Now (1920) 203 The hero-worshipful gaze. 1936 N. Marsh Death in Ecstasy vii. 86 Maurice hero-worshipped Father Garnette. 1948 ‘J. Tey’ Franchise Affair xix. 224 The centre of an adoring family—secure, loved, hero-worshipped. 1960 C. Day Lewis Buried Day i. 21, I hero-worshipped him. |