Word Wise

 

adoxography

Noun
1. Fine writing in praise of trivial or base subjects; "Elizabethan schoolboys were taught adoxography, the art of eruditely praising worthless things"; "adoxography is particularly useful to lawyers"

Adoxography is a term coined in the late 19th century. It was a form of rhetorical exercise “in which the legitimate methods of the encomium are applied to persons or objects in themselves obviously unworthy of praise, as being trivial, ugly, useless, ridiculous, dangerous or vicious” – see Arthur S. Pease, ‘Things Without Honor’, Classical Philology Vol. XXI (1926) 27, at 28-9.

In modern writing, the term "Adoxography" is also used as an often humorous self-reference in writing, often in regard to humor columns or blogs.

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http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Adoxography 8/4/11