英语词汇curry favor的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

curry favor. These words are literally meaningless. What does currying, or brushing, favor have to do with bootlicking, or ingratiating oneself by flattery? The expression shows that a mistake repeated often enough can become standard usage. Fa- vor here is a corruption of Fauvel. Fauvel was a fallow-colored or chestnut horse in the early 14th-century satirical poem Ro- man de Fauvel. The equine hero of this popular French allegory symbolized cunning duplicity; thus cunning people who re- sorted to insincere flattery in order to gain someone’s favor were said to curry Fauvel, to groom or brush the rascally fallow- colored horse so that he would look kindly on them and per- haps impart to them his powers of duplicity. Fauvel came to be spelled favel in English. But because favel sounded like favor to Englishmen and because the idea of gaining someone’s favor is the essence of the phrase, the proverbial expression became curry favor.

词汇	curry favor
词源	curry favor. These words are literally meaningless. What does currying, or brushing, favor have to do with bootlicking, or ingratiating oneself by flattery? The expression shows that a mistake repeated often enough can become standard usage. Fa- vor here is a corruption of Fauvel. Fauvel was a fallow-colored or chestnut horse in the early 14th-century satirical poem Ro- man de Fauvel. The equine hero of this popular French allegory symbolized cunning duplicity; thus cunning people who re- sorted to insincere flattery in order to gain someone’s favor were said to curry Fauvel, to groom or brush the rascally fallow- colored horse so that he would look kindly on them and per- haps impart to them his powers of duplicity. Fauvel came to be spelled favel in English. But because favel sounded like favor to Englishmen and because the idea of gaining someone’s favor is the essence of the phrase, the proverbial expression became curry favor.
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