The headword phrase is presumably extracted from the quotation given.
[1] Paraphrase of a passage quoted at greater length at sigma 235, in reference to either Sextus of Chaeroneia or Sextus Empiricus; ascribed by Adler to Hesychius of Miletus. These are the only attestations of the headword phrase in the sense of "in high honor in someone's eyes". Otherwise, it begins appearing in the 6th century AD with John the Lydian (e.g. On the Roman Magistrates 112.18) and others, but only in the sense of in someone (else's) honor.