Today driving to work in the thick-as-pea-soup fog this morning I was, again, grateful for my corrective lens, i.e. glasses. :) I got them a few years back for distance, watching TV, driving at night. But I find, as I get older, I need them more and more and once I put them on I am always grateful all over again for them. They truly help me see clearer, they sharpen what I am looking at, they even can give me perspective on something I didn't see very clearly at first look. I am grateful for the ability to afford the glasses so I can see as clearly as possible - I'm pretty sure other people, like drivers, are glad I can see clearer also!
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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