[Loch-Ruadh] word of the day

[Jane Sitton]

Your daily vocabulary lesson:  paean * \PEE-un\ * (noun) :  a joyous song or
hymn of praise, tribute, thanksgiving, or triumph; broadly : encomium,
tribute

Example sentence:  When the king announced that the war was officially over,
the crowd erupted into a wild paean that rose in a chorus of thousands of
voices.

Did you know?  According to the poet Homer, the Greek god Apollo sometimes
took the guise of Paean, physician to the gods.  The earliest musical paeans
were hymns of thanksgiving and praise that were dedicated to Apollo.  They
were sung at events ranging from boisterous festivals to public funerals,
and were the traditional marching songs of armies heading into battle.  Over
time, the word became generalized, and it is now used for any kind of
tribute.