I was thinking this morning about fingerprints. They are fascinating if you stop and think about them! Nobody has the fingerprints you do, our fingerprints set us apart as unique. I bet people who have been unfairly accused are grateful for fingerprints as well that can prove their innocence, fingerprints don't lie. I'm grateful for something so unique to me and to you, something that identifies each of us as special and truly one-of-a-kind.
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.
Comments
Post a Comment