The Equine Roots of Currying Favour
Hello,
I stumbled across the story of this phrase in “Humble Pie and Cold Turkey” by Caroline Taggart and had to investigate as there aren’t that many words which come to the English dictionary with thanks to a horse.
Currying favour has nothing to do with the spicy curry you might eat. The confusion is thanks to how the phrase has changed in speech over time.
One of my regular sources (Etymology Online) explains the meaning. To curry favour (or to curry favor) is to flatter and seek favour by courtesy and kindness. It dates back to the 1500s and came to English form Old French corrier fauvel which means to be hypocritical but translates literally as to curry the chestnut horse. In medieval French allegorical tales chestnut horses are symbols of cunning and deceit. There’s a similar expression in German “falben hengst streichen” meaning to flatter or cajole but literally translating as to stroke the dun-coloured horse.
The association of horses with duplicity had linguistic roots. Fauvel meant a chestnut horse but the similar word favele meant deception. It comes from fabula (fable) in Latin. In Middle English favel was a common name for a horse but the same word in French meant duplicity. The connection was an easy one to make.
Let’s look at both words. To curry a horse dates to the late 1200s. This word for grooming is from curreier in Anglo-French and before that from correier (to put in order) in Old French.
Favour came to English at the same time for beauty and charm from Old French favor (a favour, approval, praise) so one could argue that the American English spelling of favor should be chosen over the British English spelling favour, but I won’t jump into that debate! Originally it came from favorem (good will) in Latin and was coined by Cicero from the verb favere (to show kindness to).
However the word favour in currying favour is an eggcorn. An eggcorn is a word or phrase that arises from mishearing or misunderstanding the original. Somebody may use sir name instead of surname, or tow the line instead of toe the line. In this case it’s curry favour instead of curry Fauvel.
Fauvel was the main character in the 1300s poem “Roman de Fauvel” by Gervais de Bus and Chaillou de Pesstain. Fauvel was a chestnut horse (see above for ideas about chestnut horses at that time period) that managed to con his way into his owner’s home and became the master in his place. In the story, many people sought his approval (thanks to https://grammarist.com/idiom/curry-favor/ for this information). The poem was popular in Britain, and the phrase currying Fauvel came to mean flattering a false leader for personal gain. With time the poem was forgotten but the phrase remained and became currying favour.
Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace (@Wordfoolery)
p.s. Want more Wordfoolery? Subscribe to the monthly newsletter “Wordfoolery Whispers”. Sign up to avoid missing out! Don’t forget to click on the confirmation email, which might hide in your spam folder.
p.p.s. this post contains affiliate links which make a small payment to the blog if you choose to purchase through them. #CommissionsEarned. Alternatively, you can use my digital tip jar to say thanks for this year’s words.
