damning with faint praise

The concept can be found in the work of the Hellenistic sophist and philosopher Favorinus ({{circa|110 CE}}) who observed that faint and half-hearted praise was more harmful than loud and persistent abuse.Walsh, William Shepard. (1908). [https://books.google.com/books?id=xAQoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA586 The International Encyclopedia of Prose and Poetical Quotations from the Literature of the World, p. 586], citing Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae. xi, 3, 1.

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.Walsh, William Shepard. (1909). [https://books.google.com/books?id=hrJkAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA211 Handy-book of Literary Curiosities, p. 211.]

::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)Pope, Alexander. (1901) [https://books.google.com/books?id=xXciKdpaH0oC 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."

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 FletcherWalsh, William Shepard, Handy-book of Literary Curiosities,[https://books.google.com/books?id=hrJkAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA211 pp. 211–212; n.b., see Canto vii in "The Purple Island."]

The inversion "praising with faint damns" is more modern,Example: {{Cite journal

|author = Hattie, John and Peddie, R.

|date = January 2003

|pages = 4–9

|title = School reports: "Praising with faint damns"

|volume = 3

|journal = Set: Research Information for Teachers

|issue = 3

|doi = 10.18296/set.0710

}} though it goes as far back as 1888.{{Cite book|author1=Robert Ellis Thompson|author2=Wharton Barker|title=The American: A National Journal|date=1888|publisher=American Company, Limited|page=137}}

The concept was widely used in literature in the eighteenth century, for example in Tobias Smollett's Roderick Random: "I impart some of mine to her – am mortified at her faint praise".

• 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."{{citation|last=Grice|first=H. P.|author-link=Paul Grice|url=http://courses.media.mit.edu/2004spring/mas966/Grice%20Logic%20and%20Conversation.pdf|title=Logic and conversation|year=1975|page=33}}

• 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'."{{Cite web |last=Hutcheon |first=Stephen |date=22 January 2009 |title=Watch out Wikipedia, here comes Britannica 2.0 |url=https://www.smh.com.au/technology/watch-out-wikipedia-here-comes-britannica-2-0-20090123-gdtarx.html |access-date=8 July 2023 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}

• 2022, an internet meme that began with ironically praising the film Morbius as simply "one of the movies of all time", without any adjective. The quote would serve as a template for any popular culture work judged to be mediocre.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} See {{section link|Morbius (film)|Internet memes}} for additional detail on ironic reception of the film.
• 1940s Winston Churchill talking about Clement Attlee "a modest man with lots to be modest about"

• Backhanded compliment
• Polite fiction
• Sarcasm

{{reflist|2}}

• 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}}

{{wiktionary|damn with faint praise}}

• Alexander Pope. [http://ethnicity.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/arbuthnot.html "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," annotated text of the poem]

Category:English-language idioms

Category:Linguistic controversies