A while back my husband took a couple days off and during his puttering around he decided to clean all of our windows, inside and out. We hadn't realized how dirty they really were until he cleaned them and we could see out of them again! They sparkle and shine like they haven't in about 10 years (not a word and no judgement!). Today I was looking out the window at the sun setting and I, once again, was so grateful for our clean windows. It gives me a clear view to the mountain I love (Pikes Peak) and everything has a lot more clarity. I'm grateful for them, I'm grateful that my husband looked at them and decided it was (way past) time.
There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.
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