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Comment by dlisboa | Hacker News Reader

I've seen the term "hagiography" 8 times in the past three days in articles of different topics, having never heard the word before. Being that English is my second language, but the one I consume the most content in (more than my first), I pay close attention to word patterns and have seen the language evolve with my own eyes.

But this one is weird. I think it's similar to the LLMs fixation with "delve", my guess is people are using AI to suggest articles.

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Maybe? Or this might be a case of the 'Frequency Illusion'[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion

English is my first language and I had to look it up too (at least the 'hagi' part!) I think it's a relatively-rarely-used word for sure! Maybe it's recently re-entered the zeitgeist? (And there's another fairly-uncommon word for ya! Hehe)

I too have noticed this word appear recently! I read a lot about politics and I believe it has shown up there mostly. Wish I could find some examples. I think it’s been in the context of cults and martyrs.

Being this article is 5 years old, it’s likely just Baader-Meinhof, feels like it happens to me every time I learn a new interesting word or concept—seems like I start seeing it everywhere.

Chase it with sudden repeated exposure to "hermeneutics"!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion

It is a Greek word, used for Saints Icons painting, Agio (Saint) + Graphi (Writing down).

Painting in Greek is zographia, Zoi ( life/living) + Graphi. The use case in the Article and English is mostly from "intellectuals" who like to use cool words without even knowing their meaning.

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