the.com/condescension
Kindness with a step stool it insists you needed.
means Behaving graciously toward someone while making sure they feel beneath you — courtesy delivered from a height.
from From Latin com- ('together') plus descendere ('to descend'), literally 'to descend together.' It started out, in older English usage, as a genuinely positive word — a willingness by the high-ranking to lower themselves to meet others' level without pride. Over centuries that goodwill curdled: the descent stopped feeling mutual and started feeling performed, and by the 1800s 'condescension' had settled into its current sour sense — the step down taken just so everyone can see how far you had to come.
- etymology
- literally means to descend with someone
- tell
- always praises the effort, never the result
- disguise
- frequently wears the mask of helpfulness
- favorite word
- actually, as in you actually did that