the.com/fawn
Flattery with a deer-like disguise: all legs, loyalty, and ulterior motives.
means To lavish exaggerated attention, flattery, or affection on someone, usually to win their favor.
from Two different animals hiding in one word. The deer sense of 'fawn' (baby deer) comes from Old French 'faon,' meaning young animal, tracing back to Latin 'fetus.' The flattery sense of 'fawn' is unrelated — it comes from Old English 'fagnian,' meaning to rejoice or be glad, related to 'fægen' (glad), the same root behind 'fain.' It originally described a dog's eager, wagging-tail delight at its owner, and the word slid from 'joyful greeting' to 'groveling, ingratiating display' as the behavior started to look less like honest happiness and more like calculated sucking-up.
- double meaning
- baby deer and shameless flattery, same spelling
- etymology link
- from fagnian, old english for rejoice or crawl
- camouflage trick
- fawns have no scent to hide from predators
- color borrowed
- pale tan shade named directly after the animal