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Hello to the English StackExchange community. I was going through the story Princess September and it appeared that the king in the story is a non-conformist. He also loves to hear praises about himself, as is made evident in the story. Just as a short example, the King of Siam in the story tells that he gets tired of hearing "Pretty Polly" from the royal parrots, however he is never tired of hearing "God Save the King" which he also receives as a compliment from his councillors.

The question is- even though we hear of it so very much, is there a single word/trait that defines a person who loves to hear compliments all the time? I guess the answer is really quite simple and it is making me crib as to why I can't recall such a thing. Thank you for taking the time to answer if you do.

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  • Even if I never heard of it, the word "flatterable" exists (definition: susceptible to flattery)
    – Graffito
    Commented Oct 4, 2015 at 14:04

2 Answers 2

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A pretty excessive example would be a narcissist.

Definition of narcissist in English: noun

A person who has an excessive interest in or admiration of themselves:
'narcissists who think the world revolves around them'
'narcissists preening themselves in front of the mirror'

Reference:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/narcissist

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    Did you mean narcissist (rather than narcist)?i think you did.
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Commented Oct 4, 2015 at 12:56
  • @BrianHitchcock If it's the noun you want I would use narcissus. Narcissist can be used as a noun, but I think is more frequently used as an adjective.
    – WS2
    Commented Oct 4, 2015 at 21:31
  • @Brian Hitchcock you are totally right of course, I revisited and edited the answer.
    – Bookeater
    Commented Oct 20, 2015 at 8:54
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    @WS2: interestingly, the dictionary entry as cited above claims to define an adjective, but in fact describes (and gives examples of) the noun sense. Anyway, in AmE, the adjective form is narcissistic
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Commented Oct 20, 2015 at 12:06
  • @BrianHitchcock American adjectives never seem to use one syllable where they can use three. I once listened to an American clergyman giving a sermon during which he referred several times to a reverential attitude to people's differences. I spoke to him later and asked him the meaning of a reverential outlook, and as I suspected it amounted to a reverent outlook. But since the gist of his message was about respect for people's differences we shook hands and agreed that there were more important things in this world to disagree about.
    – WS2
    Commented Oct 20, 2015 at 19:21
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It's a neologism of my own derivation, but how about laudomania / laudomaniac? It fits into the lexicon of pop psychology as well as Latin etymology. I agree that such a term is needed.

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