Damning with faint praise is an English idiom, expressing oxymoronically that half-hearted or insincere praise may act as oblique criticism or condemnation. [1] [2] In simpler terms, praise is given, but only given as high as mediocrity, which may be interpreted as passive-aggressive.
The concept can be found in the work of the Hellenistic sophist and philosopher Favorinus ( c. 110 CE) who observed that faint and half-hearted praise was more harmful than loud and persistent abuse. [3]
The explicit phrasing of the modern English idiomatic expression was first published by Alexander Pope in his 1734 poem, " Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" in Prologue to the Satires. [4]
According to William Shepard Walsh, "There is a faint anticipation in William Wycherley's Double Dealer, "and libels everybody with dull praise," But a closer parallel is in Phineas Fletcher:
The inversion "praising with faint damns" is more modern, [7] though it goes as far back as 1888. [8]
The concept was widely used in literature in the eighteenth century, for example in Tobias Smollet's Roderick Random - "I impart some of mine to her - am mortified at her faint praise".
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
Damning with faint praise is an English idiom, expressing oxymoronically that half-hearted or insincere praise may act as oblique criticism or condemnation. [1] [2] In simpler terms, praise is given, but only given as high as mediocrity, which may be interpreted as passive-aggressive.
The concept can be found in the work of the Hellenistic sophist and philosopher Favorinus ( c. 110 CE) who observed that faint and half-hearted praise was more harmful than loud and persistent abuse. [3]
The explicit phrasing of the modern English idiomatic expression was first published by Alexander Pope in his 1734 poem, " Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" in Prologue to the Satires. [4]
According to William Shepard Walsh, "There is a faint anticipation in William Wycherley's Double Dealer, "and libels everybody with dull praise," But a closer parallel is in Phineas Fletcher:
The inversion "praising with faint damns" is more modern, [7] though it goes as far back as 1888. [8]
The concept was widely used in literature in the eighteenth century, for example in Tobias Smollet's Roderick Random - "I impart some of mine to her - am mortified at her faint praise".
{{
cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)