Curry favour
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
Seek someone's approval or an advantage through calculated flattery or ingratiating behaviour. Usually disapproving. American English spells the noun favor. Regional use: Middle English and French literary origin; favour spelling chiefly British.
Origin
The phrase began as curry Fauvel, meaning to groom or rub down Fauvel, the symbolic horse in the early fourteenth-century French Roman de Fauvel. Fauvel's name suggested fallow colour and personified hypocrisy and worldly vice. Middle English writers adopted the expression for ingratiating oneself with power. Once the literary horse was forgotten, unfamiliar Fauvel was reshaped into the ordinary word favour. Curry here is the old verb for grooming a horse, not the name of a spiced dish.
Research Sources
Variants
- Curry favor
Usage Examples
- He praised every proposal in an obvious attempt to curry favour.
- The supplier sent lavish gifts to curry favour with the buyer.
- She refused to curry favour and gave the panel her honest view.