Currying favour

 

Currying favour

Currying favour or trying to get into someone’s good books relies on flattery or obsequiousness. It is a strange expression and has nothing whatever to do with food or spicy condiments. It comes from the 13^th century Old French ‘correier’ which meant ‘to prepare or arrange’ and was used for the grooming of horses. By the 14^th century it was used expressly to describe brushing and rubbing down horses. The tool used for that is a curry comb.

The expression ‘curry favour’ derived from a 14^th century satirical French poem, ‘Roman de Fauvel’ by Gervais du Bus.  The horse’s name, Fauvel, references the French adjective ‘fauve’ which means tawny or chestnut. (As a noun, fauve refers to wild animals whose coats are reddish-brown.)

Fauvel, the horse of the poem, was fallow, that is, pale tawny in colour. In mediaeval times a fallow horse was considered deceitful and cunning. His name was a play on the words ‘faux voile’ meaning false veil and was also an acrostic detailing the vices of Flattery, Avarice, Villainy, Variability, Envy, and Laxity.

Fauvel was a duplicitous horse who tricked his way into the French royal court and was courted and fêted by sycophantic dignitaries and important church officials in high positions. They won his favour by grooming him, brushing mud and sweat from his coat to win his approval and support. Eventually, he became the most significant figure in the court.

The phrase came to England in the 15^th century, and by the next century fauvel had changed to favour. Favour is an eggcorn (or phonetic corruption) which is a misunderstanding or mispronunciation of the original. (Other examples of eggcorns include ‘per say’ for ‘per se’, ’beckon call’ for ‘beck and call,’ ‘doggy dog world’ instead of ‘dog eat dog world)