As a believer in God there are certain days that have been chosen to recognize significant occurrences in the Christian faith. Today happens to be one of them. It's Good Friday. I've moved away from celebrating in the traditional ways but that doesn't mean that I am not grateful for what Good Friday means. It means death, eternal death, was conquered through the sacrificial death of Jesus. And I'm grateful because the death (and subsequent resurrection) of Christ brought about the death of an eternity separated from him and that births hope for me. Death conquering death is good news and cause for deep gratitude.
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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