Etymologically
Log in

flatter

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 1 November 2026 at 00:22. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈflætə/[1]
  • US: /ˈflætɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English flateren, earlier flatren,[2][3][4] usually taken as borrowed from Old French flater (“to stroke, caress; to flatter”),[2][3][5][6][7][8] modern flatter, which is probably of Germanic origin,[3][5][8] from Frankish *flat (“flat, level”), related to Old High German flaz and to flat.[2][4][6] Ayto takes the Frankish word as the flat or palm of the hand, so that the French verb first meant to smooth down or caress with the hand.[7] The ending is irregular, since Middle English did not add -er to French verbs: Barnhart and Etymonline suggest the influence of verbs such as flikeren and schimeren, or of flattery;[2][3] the Oxford dictionaries and Hoad consider flatter perhaps a back-formation from flattery,[9][10][11] and the OED calls its etymology somewhat doubtful.[12] The OED thinks it more probable that a native onomatopoeic flatter "to flutter" took on the sense of the French word, comparing Old Norse flaðra (“to flatter”),[12] and Dictionary.com takes the Middle English verb as first meaning "to float, flutter, fawn upon", from Old English floterian, reinforced by the French verb.[13] Liberman goes further: the verb is one of many imitative verbs beginning with fl- for light repeated movement, like flutter and flit, first meaning "to flit about", and is related neither to flat nor to the French verb, which may itself be borrowed from Middle English.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To praise someone unduly or insincerely: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle, where the OED's first quotation is dated about 1225.[2][12] Etymonline dates it to about 1200,[3] and the OED notes that in its earliest instance flatteren occurs as a variant reading for flakeren.[12]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb meant to court or fawn upon someone (1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt), and, of animals, to show fondness by wagging the tail or making caressing sounds (Chaucer, about 1386, to 1607).[12] In 1377 Langland used it of encouraging someone with hopes on slight grounds, and by about 1400 it meant to gratify a person's vanity.[12] The sense "to give a pleasing but false impression" is from the late 14th century.[3] From 1581 painters and portraits were said to flatter a sitter, showing them better than they are,[12][3] and since 1904 clothes or a setting flatter someone by showing them to advantage.[12] The reflexive flatter oneself, to please oneself with a belief, goes back to Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis (1593).[12] Johnson (1755) defined it as to soothe with praises and to gain by false compliments.[15] In Scottish, Irish and Yorkshire dialect flatter also meant to wheedle or coax, and in Cornwall to deceive.[16]

Timeline

  • before 1200 – flatren, to praise insincerely, in the Ancrene Riwle.[2][12]
  • 1340 – to court or fawn upon a person.[12]
  • 1377 – to encourage with hopes on insufficient grounds.[12]
  • c. 1386 – of an animal, to show fondness (obsolete by 1607).[12]
  • c. 1400 – to gratify a person's vanity.[12]
  • 1581 – to represent too favourably, especially in a portrait.[12][3]
  • 1593 – to please with a belief; now chiefly flatter oneself.[12]
  • 1904 – to show to the best advantage.[12]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To praise someone too much or insincerely, especially to win favour: He flattered the director in the hope of a promotion.[8][4][12]
  2. To please or gratify the vanity of: She was flattered to be asked for her opinion.[8][4][12]
  3. To show to advantage; to make someone look more attractive than in reality: The soft light flattered the old house.[8][4][12]
  4. To encourage someone, or their hopes, especially falsely: The early lead flattered the team into overconfidence.[8][4][12]
  5. flatter oneself: to believe something pleasing about oneself, often wrongly.[8][12]
  6. (archaic) To beguile or soothe; to make something less oppressive.[4][12]

Word family

  • flatterer
  • flatteringly
  • flatterable
  • outflatter
  • flattery
  • unflattering
  • flat
  • flutter

Usage notes

A separate obsolete verb flatter, to float or flutter, an imitative word like flutter and flitter, was used from about 1425 to 1803.[12][4][9] The noun flatter, a person who or tool that flattens something, is formed from flat with -er and is recorded from 1714.[12][4][6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ Liberman, Anatoly (2008), An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)