What have we stopped noticing?
The things we say, do, and accept without thinking twice.
Look closer where it comes from, what it assumes, and the case for keeping it
To flatter someone, usually in the hope of gaining a favor or getting them to agree to something.
The story often told is that the phrase comes from an ancient Indian practice of throwing balls of ghee at statues of deities to win favor.
The record does not support that story. English was already using butter as a verb for flattering or ingratiating someone by the early 17th century, and "butter up" is documented by around 1700.
The better-documented explanation connects the metaphor with spreading butter on bread, transferring the idea of covering something smoothly and pleasantly to lavish praise. The ancient ghee story is a later folk explanation with no established link to the English phrase.
The ghee story is vivid, and it sticks. Somebody who believes it hears an old devotional image in a phrase that only ever meant spreading something on thickly.
- The False Hindu Origin of "Butter Someone Up" · CulinaryLore
- butter up · Dictionary.com
- Butter (Someone) Up · American English, U.S. Department of State