heroify

English

Etymology

From hero +‎ -ify.

Verb

heroify (third-person singular simple present heroifies, present participle heroifying, simple past and past participle heroified)

1. To raise someone to the status of a hero by overlooking the person's flaws.

   In writing about important historical figures, one must be careful not to heroify them.

   • 1886, Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: History of the Northwest Coast:

     What were the far-off natives of the Rocky Mountains doing that this restless, reckless, blood-thirsty, and cruel Frenchman should be permitted to kill them? [...] The vilest agents were permitted to employ the vilest means; and this French butcher finds among our first writers a man to heroify him and to set up his dastardly deeds as models for the young.

Related terms

• heroification