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agiografia

hagiography

noun ah-joh-grah-FEE-ah Rare
Arts & Culture Literature

Origin: Greek hagiographia, from hagios (holy) + graphein (to write).

Also means

overly flattering biography

Usage Note

Agiografia literally means the writing of saints' lives, but in modern Italian it is most often used figuratively and critically — un'agiografia of a politician or celebrity is an uncritically admiring biography. The adjective agiografico carries the same pejorative tone. The plural is agiografie. It is a learned or journalistic register word.

Examples

"Il libro era un'agiografia del fondatore dell'azienda."

Natural Translation

The book was a hagiography of the company's founder.

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