Latry

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The practice of worshipping or showing extreme reverence toward a particular thing, person, or concept
2. Devotion to or religious veneration of something, often used as a suffix in words like idolatry or bibliolatry
3. The act of paying homage or religious respect to something regarded as divine or supremely worthy

Etymology: In ancient Greek, "latreia" meant paid labor or service, the kind a hired worker or servant performed for an employer. Religious worship took on the sense only because people served their gods much as they served masters, so devotion and servitude shared one vocabulary. The related noun "latris" meant a hired servant, and the verb "latreuein" meant to serve or to work for pay. English took the element from Greek. It appears in "idolatry," which comes through Old French and Late Latin from the Greek "eidōlolatreia," literally "image-service," combining "eidōlon" (image, idol) with "latreia." Later coinages built on the same pattern, so the suffix now means excessive devotion or worship of something, as in "bibliolatry," the reverence of books or scripture taken to an extreme.