Damning with faint praise

Damning with faint praise is an English idiom for words that effectively condemn by seeming to offer praise which is too moderate or marginal to be considered praise at all.^[1] In other words, this phrase identifies the act of expressing a compliment so feeble that it amounts to no compliment at all, or even implies a kind of condemnation.^[2]

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.^[3]

The explicit phrasing of the modern English idiomic expression was first published by Alexander Pope in his 1734 poem, "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" in Prologue to the Satires.^[4]

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)^[5]

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^[6]

Examples

• 2009, interview with Encyclopædia Britannica president Jorge Cauz in the Sydney Morning Herald:

". . . [Cauz] said a big problem was that many users considered Wikipedia to be 'fine' or 'good enough'."

• 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.”

• 2010, The Way They Were, New York Times:

". . . when [George] W. [Bush] could avoid it no longer, he mentioned Vice [President Dick Cheney], damning with faint praise: “Dick Cheney’s advice was consistent and strong.”"

See also

• Backhanded compliment
• Polite fiction
• Sarcasm

Notes

1. Ichikawa, Sanki. (1964). The Kenkyusha Dictionary of Current English Idioms, pp. 153–154.
2. Ammer, Christine. (2001). The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, p. 153.
3. Walsh, William Shepard. (1908). The International Encyclopedia of Prose and Poetical Quotations from the Literature of the World, p. 586, citing Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae. xi, 3, 1.
4. Walsh, William Shepard. (1909). Handy-book of Literary Curiosities, p. 211.
5. Pope, Alexander. (1901) The Rape of the Lock: An Essay on Man and Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, p. 97; n.b., see line 201 in "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot."
6. Walsh, William Shepard, Handy-book of Literary Curiosities,pp. 211–212; n.b., see Canto vii in "The Purple Island."

References

• Ammer, Christine. (1997). The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-395-72774-4; OCLC 228041670
• Browne, William Hardcastle. (1900). Odd Derivations of Words, Phrases, Slang, Synonyms and Proverbs. Philadelphia: Arnold. OCLC 23900443
• Hirsch, Eric Donald Hirsch, Joseph F. Kett and James S. Trefil. (2002). The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-618-22647-4; ISBN 978-0-9657664-3-2; OCLC 50166721
• Ichikawa, Sanki. (1964). The Kenkyusha Dictionary of Current English Idioms. Tokyo: Kenkyusha. OCLC 5056712
• 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. OCLC 3147633
• Walsh, William Shepard. (1892). Handy-book of Literary Curiosities. Philadelphia: Lippincott.OCLC 247190584
• __________. (1908). The International Encyclopedia of Prose and Poetical Quotations from the Literature of the World. Toronto: C. Clark. OCLC 22391024

External links

• Alexander Pope. "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," annotated text of the poem