Can one "lionize" a non-human?

Dunno. Wouldn't idolize be a better choice?

Hehe.

NO!!

But, thanks tweetie!

I have to laud something--to make it bigger than life. I need a word. But, laud isn't big enough.

I would like to lionize it, if you can do that.

I would idyllize it, though.

But, not a word.

Pah!

Well, it's your word Lash. You can do whatever you want with it

can you humanize a non Lion?

Sure. It's called anthromorphism

well there you go then.

I think your Lion--usually a literary Lion--must be bipedal, capable of sophisticated scorn and available for worship.

To my mind, abstractions can't be lionized.

Revered...worshiped... idolized...doted upon....but abstractions can't roar.

Unless the abstraction is "woman".

Thanks everybody.

Sorry I'm late getting back. Bear, I like the way you're thinking. I wonder if my prof will let me give human qualities in that way to a time....?

I like writing that way--but what I like isn't the most important thing. (How I hate it when that happens!) It may be "by the book"
--in which case, I trust Noddy is correct.

But, tanks!!

I think you're barking (?roaring?) up the wrong tree, Lash, because to "lionise" someone doesn't actually mean to admire, praise, or adore them; it means to treat them as a celebrity. You can't treat emotions or abstractions of any kind as celebrities, and I don't think that's what you want to do anyway.

The word derives originally from the lions which centuries ago were kept in a menagerie at the Tower of London. These lions were one of the most celebrated tourist sights of London; if a visitor didn't "see the lions" during his stay, he hadn't properly "done" London. So "the lions" became a slang term for the famous sights and the famous people of a place, the ones you want to be able to say you have seen and met when you go back home. Thus to "lionise" someone means to make them into a "lion", i.e. a celebrity, by making them guest of honour at parties, gossiping about them, flattering them, and so on. There used to be a slang word "lion-hunter" for the kind of host or hostess who always tries to get at least one celebrity to their parties.

Syntinen--

Good points. I came back to this thread to Lionize the Tower of London cats and found that you'd made my comments unnecessary.

Hold your dominion.