lionize

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 24, 2023 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>lionize</strong> &#149; \LYE-uh-nyze\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p>To lionize someone is to treat them as a person of great interest or importance.</p> <p>// While her name was not attached to her books in her lifetime (she published anonymously), Jane Austen continues two centuries hence to be <em>lionized</em> as one of the English language's greatest novelists.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lionize">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>“What I love about this memoir, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2019, is its incredible sense of place. [Sarah M.] Broom’s story is submerged in one of the most <em>lionized</em>—and complex—cities in America: New Orleans. More specifically, she focuses on New Orleans East and the yellow shotgun house that the author’s steadfast mother, Ivory Mae, bought in 1961, and where Broom grew up as the youngest of 12 siblings.” — Isaac Fitzgerald, <em>The Atlantic</em>, 10 Aug. 2022</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>Across time and across cultures—as evidenced from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Chauvet-Pont-dArc/Artists-of-the-cave">Chauvet-Pont d’Arc’s</a> paintings to <em>The Lion King</em>—lions have captured people’s imaginations. Though the big cats themselves are fascinatingly complex, it’s perhaps no surprise that humans have long projected qualities of bravery and <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/regality">regality</a> upon the proverbial “king of the beasts.” It is precisely those and similar admirable qualities that led, in the 18th century, to <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lion"><em>lion</em></a> being used for a person who is similarly well-regarded, especially after a long and distinguish