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In William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar it is said that a sure way to flatter Caesar is to remind him how he hates flatterers.
Of course to flatter someone is to say nice things about them.
Unfortunately there is a sense about this word that the nice things being said aren’t necessarily true. Instead, as in Shakespeare’s example, flattery can be seen as simply designed to butter up the victim.
Anatoly Liberman includes the word flatter in his recently released Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology*. There he lays out a few potential etymologies for flatter, one of which is a Latin root meaning to “make big” as flattery would do to one’s ego.
That’s not what Professor Liberman thinks is most likely though.
The Oxford English Dictionary entry for flatter admits that its etymology is “doubtful” but suggests that flatter may be related to flat. The thinking here is that when someone’s ego needs stroking it’s as if you were flattening down their raised hackles or smoothing their feathers.
This OED entry has as its most recent citation something from 1909 so it certainly hasn’t been updated in the effort to bring about a third edition of the dictionary—it looks like it even missed the flattery of reexamination for the second edition.
Still, the other etymological sources I checked seemed to agree with the OED.
But with new eyes on the problem Anatoly Liberman does not.
He does give this “flattening” theory a considerable amount of ink, but instead prefers the idea that flatter is evolved out of Germanic roots that also gave us flit and flutter.
Think of the chirpiness of someone who is transparently attempting to ingratiate themselves with you. Their flapping about is meaningless and if it goes on too long, downright annoying. That annoyance certainly lines up with the negative tone that the word flatter carries.
Samuel Johnson expressed the negative in flattery with definitions included in his dictionary such as
“to please with blandishments” and
“to raise false hopes.”
He used the word too with its cutting edge.
At one point after Johnson had achieved a reputation and was seen as one of the smarter people in London he was introduced to a woman named Hannah More. Hannah herself would later grow to be highly regarded but at this first meeting she was still an outsider recently arrived from the countryside.
When she met Johnson she was effusive in her praise and eventually he shut her down by saying
“Dearest lady, consider with yourself what your flattery is worth, before you bestow it so freely.”
Ouch!
He made up for it later though. Hannah was asked her opinion of a popular play. Swimming upstream against the views of her companions she pointed out the play’s flaws. Johnson’s credibility was so high that when he agreed with her she instantly became a respected critic.
*I talked more about Anatoly Liberman’s new Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology on the main podictionary feed two weeks ago when I explored the word dwarf.
Five days a week Charles Hodgson produces Podictionary – the podcast for word lovers, Thursday episodes here at OUPblog. He’s also the author of Carnal Knowledge – A Navel Gazer’s Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia as well as the forthcoming short format audio book Global Wording – The Fascinating Story of the Evolution of English.
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