hagiography
/ˌhaɡɪˈɒɡrəfi
/noun [mass noun]
1The writing of the lives of saints.In spite of its unreliability as a factual source for specific information about individual saints, however, hagiography supplies us with a rich source of information about medieval social and philosophical attitudes....
- Saint Martin's hagiography portrays him as a powerful exorcist who fought personally with Satan throughout his life.
- Green did not set out to write hagiography, but I think this is hagiography at its best.
1.1 [count noun] A biography that treats its subject with undue reverence: a hagiography which is designed to serve a political agenda [mass noun]: the result is not hagiography but a fitting monument to a giant of 20th-century music...
- Chapters three and four make a strong case for the use of biographies and hagiographies to help reconstruct the ‘making’ of a saint.
- Too many Hollywood biographies are either poorly written, cut and paste hagiographies or spiteful, fantastical hatchet jobs that only prove the authors' distaste for their subject.
- Many of the films have intimate access to their subjects and while they all celebrate the work of the artists concerned, they are far from hagiographies.
Derivatives
hagiographic
/ adjective ...- American history tends to be hagiographic in nature, building images of men like Washington and Lincoln as two dimensional ‘men in white hats’, sent by God himself to vanquish the forces of evil.
- They devise TV tributes, hagiographic movies and Broadway-style shows of the kind I saw in London last week and will be telling you about later in this column.
- Despite its arguably hagiographic and romantic nature, he presents some excellent material.
hagiographical
- The trouble with retrospection - especially the kind of hagiographical retrospection that comes with a box set - is that it lends everything added poignancy.
- I do not appreciate the hagiographical approach of the media.
- The book was authorised, not critical, and its intent was somewhat hagiographical.
Rhymes
- plasher
- plashy
- plasm
- plasma
- plasma arc
- plasmablast
- plasma cell
- plasmacellular
- plasma current
- plasmacyte
- plasmacytic
- plasmacytoid
- plasmacytoma
- plasmacytosis
- plasma diagnostics
- plasmadynamic
- plasmadynamical
- plasma dynamics
- plasma engine
- plasma expander
- plasma frequency
- plasmagel
- plasmagene
- plasmagenic
- plasma jet