flattery

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English flaterie, also vlaterie,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French flaterie,^{[4][3][5][6][7]} now flatterie,^[4][3][8] from flater (“to flatter”) and -erie.^[5][9] The OED derives it from the agent noun flatere (“flatterer”) instead.^[7] The Anglo-Norman form is recorded from the early 14th century.^[10] The French verb is probably of Germanic origin and related to flat:^[6][8][11] Barnhart, Klein and Ayto derive it from Frankish *flat (“flat, level”),^[12][3][13] and its first sense would be "to smooth down, stroke with the hand, caress".^[7][13][12] The OED calls the etymology somewhat doubtful,^[7] and Etymonline reports that Liberman takes the verb as one of many imitative words beginning with the same two letters for light, repeated movement, such as flicker and flutter.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dishonest praise, coaxing speech: about 1320, in the Seven Sages, in the OED,^[7] and about 1330 in the Auchinleck copy of that text, in the MED.^[2] The verb flatter is older, from about 1200.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

According to Ayto, the literal idea of caressing had already passed into the figurative "buttering up" in French,^[13] so the English word meant insincere praise from the start.^[7][2] Middle English writers paired it with fals, feined and sugred,^[2] and Chaucer, who used it 19 times, and Gower, 18 times, also personified it.^[14] From 1597, in Shakespeare's Richard II, it could be a single instance, with a plural.^[7] In 1609, in his Sonnets, it could mean a pleasing self-deception,^[7][5] which Merriam-Webster labels obsolete.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "false praise; artful obsequiousness; adulation".^[15] Merriam-Webster quotes his remark that just praise is only a debt, "but flattery is a present".^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1320 – false or insincere praise, cajolery.^[7][2]
• 1340 – the form ulaterie, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt.^[2]
• 1597 – with a and a plural, an instance of false praise.^[7]
• 1609 – figurative, a pleasing delusion.^[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Excessive or insincere praise; adulation: No amount of flattery will change my mind.^{[11][16][5][7]}
2. The act or practice of flattering.^[11][5][7]
3. An instance of such praise.^[5][7]
4. (obsolete) A pleasing self-deception.^[5][7]

Word family

• self-flattery

Related words

• flatter
• flatterer
• flat

Usage notes

According to the Phrase Finder, the proverb imitation is the sincerest form of flattery dates from the early 19th century, after earlier paraphrases such as Eustace Budgell's in The Spectator of October 1714.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
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. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Martin, Gary, The Phrase Finder: Meaning and Origin of Phrases, Sayings, Clichés and Quotes, https://www.phrases.org.uk