Language and etymology
Page purpose:
- study of purposes and forms of language
- study of the origin of words
- study of change in meaning of words over time
"Curry a favor"
- excellent demonstration of how language morphs across space and time
- in Old English, "curry" means "to cook"
- after British colonization of India, the word became synonymous with the common Indian cooking spice, called today, "curry"
- "Curry a favor" has no relation to the spice
- "curry" came from the Old French "torcher" for "groom" as in to wipe down and clean a horse
- origin of "curry a favor":
- from the 14th century French satirical poem,Roman de Fauvel ("roman" = romance story or verse)
- in the story:
- Fauvel was a horse or ass
- the goddess Fortuna answers Fauvel's request to move into the palace and become a lord
- priests and other lords visit Fauvel and "curry" (groom) him in order to gain his favor
- "fauvel" refers to the brownish color of fallow (un-planted) field, and was a color symbolic of vanity
- fauvel may also have been a play on the words, "false veil"
- the expression "curry fauvel" was picked up by English speakers
- but as memory of the story of Fauvel faded, the use of the word morphed into the more recognizable "favor"
- thus, "curry favor" means to hypocritically flatter a vain person for some favor or advantage
- see