curry [L16th] The curry that you eat comes from kari, a word meaning ‘sauce’ in the South Indian and Sri Lankan language Tamil. Travellers were bringing back tales of this spicy new food as early as 1598, and in 1747 a book called The Art of Cookery told its readers how ‘To make a Currey the Indian way’. If you curry favour you try to win favour by flattering someone and behaving obsequiously. The expression dates from the early 16th century and has nothing at all to do with Indian cuisine. It comes from a Middle English word, also spelled curry, meaning ‘to groom a horse with a coarse brush or comb’, which came into Middle English from Old French. Curry favour itself is an alteration of the medieval form curry favel [LME]. Favel or Fauvel was the name of a horse in a 14th-century French tale who became a symbol of cunning and deceit. So ‘to groom Favel’ came to mean to handle him in just as cunning a way, by flattering him or behaving in an ingratiating way.