To Curry Favor
Definition: To flatter.
Origin
According to the fourteenth-century French allegory, Roman de Fauvel, there once was a chestnut colored horse named Fauvel. And curry refers to brushing a horse. Fauvel, as the story goes, tended to be a little cunning and even deceitful — definitely a horse that needed flattering to get what you wanted. Perhaps a good brushing was just the trick. As with most French words that cross the channel and land in England, the spelling of the horse's name changed — fauvel became favor.
