Rhapsodise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To articulate emotions with overwhelming enthusiasm and delight while describing thoughts or experiences in a vivid and poetic manner
2. To convey one's sentiments in an expressive and passionate style while reflecting on ideas or experiences with great joy and fervor
3. To speak or write with intense joy and vivid emotion about a subject

Etymology: Rhapsody began in ancient Greece as "rhapsoidia," a word for stitching together a song from pieces, and the reciters who performed these epic fragments were called "rhapsodes." By the time English took the noun, it had come to mean an emotional, almost ecstatic outpouring rather than a stitched-together recitation, which is why a rhapsode's craft is now so far from its modern sense. The verb "rhapsodize" is simply rhapsody with the suffix "-ize" added, a formation that came into English through Middle French and Late Latin from the Greek "-izein," meaning to make or to act in a certain way. The verb therefore describes the act of speaking in that heightened, rapturous manner. Its British spelling, "rhapsodise," follows the usual pattern for words ending in "-ize," with the "-ise" ending common in British English.

Synonyms: enthuse, exult, celebrate, eulogize, praise