Damning With Faint Praise

Damning with faint praise is an English idiom, expressing oxymoronically that half-hearted or insincere praise may act as oblique criticism or condemnation.Ammer, Christine. (2001)
''The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms,'' p. 153.
/ref> In simpler terms, praise is given, but only given as high as mediocrity, which may be interpreted as passive-aggressive.

History of the term

The concept can be found in the work of the Hellenistic sophist and philosopher Favorinus (c. 110 AD) who observed that faint and half-hearted praise was more harmful than loud and persistent abuse.

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.''
::Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
::And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
::Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
::Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.
::::— "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" by Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

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, —"
::When needs he must, yet faintly then he praises,
::Somewhat the deed, much more the means he raises:
::So marreth what he makes, and praising most, dispraises.
::::— "The Purple Island" by Phineas Fletcher

The inversion "praising with faint damns" is a more modern coinage, though it certainly goes as far back as 1888.

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".

Examples

* 1917, Lucy Maud Montgomery, ''The Alpine Path: The Story Of My Career'':
: "They wrote that 'Our readers report that they find some merit in your story, but not enough to warrant its acceptance'."
* 1975, Paul Grice, giving an example of conversational implicature:
: A professor is writing a testimonial about a pupil who is a candidate for a philosophy job, and his letter reads as follows: "Dear Sir, Mr. X's command of English is excellent, and his attendance at tutorials has been regular. Yours, etc."
* 2009
interview
with ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' president Jorge Cauz in the '' Sydney Morning Herald'':
: "… auzsaid a big problem was that many users considered Wikipedia to be 'fine' or 'good enough'."

See also

* Backhanded compliment
*Polite fiction
*Sarcasm

References

Sources

* Ammer, Christine. (1997). ''The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms.'' New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ;
* Browne, William Hardcastle. (1900). ''Odd Derivations of Words, Phrases, Slang, Synonyms and Proverbs.'' Philadelphia: Arnold.
* Hirsch, Eric Donald Hirsch, Joseph F. Kett and James S. Trefil. (2002). ''The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.'' Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ; ;
* Ichikawa, Sanki. (1964). ''The Kenkyusha Dictionary of Current English Idioms.'' Tokyo: Kenkyusha.
* Pope, Alexander and Henry Walcott Boynton. (1901). ''The Rape of the Lock. An essay on Man and Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot.'' Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co.
* Walsh, William Shepard. (1892). ''Handy-book of Literary Curiosities.'' Philadelphia: Lippincott.
* __________. (1908). ''The International Encyclopedia of Prose and Poetical Quotations from the Literature of the World.'' Toronto: C. Clark.

External links

{{wiktionary, damn with faint praise
*Alexander Pope
"Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," annotated text of the poem

English-language idioms
Linguistic controversies