I'm grateful for persistence, especially when I utilize it without meaning to. This whole week I practiced persistence in taking care of a cold that wanted to knock me down. Let me tell you, I kicked that cold's ass! I did! And I did it through persistence with a Neti Pot, Umcka, Emergen-C, and gallons of water. I didn't let up, I kept on with it because I don't have the time, energy, or patience to get sick. So today, this week, I am grateful for persistence.
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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