🐴 Currying Favor: From Four-Legged Trickeries to Two-Faced Flattery 📜

An amusing dive into the origin and meaning of 'currying favor' and other expressions that revolve around disingenuous flattery.

To Flatter Insincerely in Order to Get Ahead 🏆

To flatter insincerely in order to get ahead. The term, which has been known since the sixteenth century, comes from a fourteenth-century satirical romance about a horse named Fauvel. This horse was a symbol of cunning bestiality, and to curry (groom) it meant that one was enlisting its services of duplicity and other nasty traits. The English version of Fauvel at first was favel, which by the sixteenth century had been corrupted into “favor.”

Brown-nosing – Excessive flattery aimed at gaining favor.
- Synonyms: Sycophancy, toadying
- Antonyms: Straightforwardness, candor
- Literature: “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens features characters who embody brown-nosing tendencies.
Kissing up – Informal term for excessive praise meant to please someone for personal gain.
- Synonyms: Boot-licking, suck-up
- Antonyms: Defiance, honesty
Playing up to – Trying to make someone like you or stay on good terms through flattery.
- Synonyms: Flattering, pandering
- Antonyms: Criticizing, opposing
Apple polishing – Flattering teachers or bosses to get something in return.
- Synonyms: Buttering up, fawning
- Antonyms: Confronting, challenging

Humor-Filled Quotes 😂

“Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it but don’t swallow it.” – Anonymous
“A flatterer is a friend who is your inferior, or pretends to be so.” – Aristotle

Proverbs and References 🌐

Proverbs: “He who slings mud generally loses ground.”
Song: “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” by The Beatles (interpreted as keeping genuine feelings hidden to maintain front)
Movies: “The Devil Wears Prada” featuring characters displaying insincere flattery to climb corporate ladders.

Educational Tidbit 🧠

The literature surrounding figures like Fauvel often serves as an allegory for human traits, illustrating how cunning, duplicity, and sycophancy are woven into the tapestry of societal interactions. Fauvel’s story serves as a reminder to beware of those whose praise sings too sweetly.

Thought-provoking Farewell 🎉

“In the quest for genuine connection, seek not the applause of men, but the enduring respect that sincerity brings.”

### Pick the phrase that means "to flatter insincerely." - [ ] Under the weather - [x] Currying favor - [ ] Jumping the gun - [ ] Bite your tongue > **Explanation:** "Currying favor" means to flatter someone insincerely to gain an advantage, originating from grooming a horse named Fauvel to align with its duplicitous traits. ### Which term is often used to describe excessive flattery? - [x] Brown-nosing - [ ] Burning the midnight oil - [ ] Cold shoulder - [ ] Back to the drawing board > **Explanation:** Brown-nosing is a common term describing excessive or insincere flattery used to gain favor. ### True or False: "Apple polishing" is a term for criticizing someone’s performance. - [ ] True - [x] False > **Explanation:** "Apple polishing" is actually a term used to describe flattering someone, especially a teacher or superior, to gain favor.