Have you ever heard of the word epeolatry? It refers to “the worship of words” and was first used by American polymath Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. in an 1860 collection of essays. Holmes derived the term from the Greek words epos (meaning “word”) and -latry (meaning “worship of”). The word epos, related to logos and the source of epic, comes from Proto-Indo-European wekw (meaning “to speak”). On the other hand, the suffix -latry, found in words like idolatry, originates from Greek latreia (meaning “worship”) and latreus (meaning “servant”), which is believed to derive from Proto-Indo-European le (meaning “to get”).
