definição e significado de flattery

Flattery (also called adulation or blandishment) is the act of giving excessive compliments, generally for the purpose of ingratiating oneself with the subject.

Historically, flattery has been used as a standard form of discourse when addressing a king or queen. In the Renaissance, it was a common practice among writers to flatter the reigning monarch, as Edmund Spenser flattered Queen Elizabeth I in The Faerie Queene, William Shakespeare flattered King James I in Macbeth and Niccolò Machiavelli flattered Lorenzo II di Piero de' Medici, ruler of Florence and Duke of Urbino, in The Prince.

Flattery is also used in pick-up lines used to attempt to initiate romantic courtship.

Most associations with flattery, however, are negative. Negative descriptions of flattery range at least as far back in history as The Bible. In the Divine Comedy, Dante depicts flatterers wading in human excrement, stating that their words were the equivalent of excrement, in the 8th Circle of Hell.

An insincere flatterer is a stock character in many literary works. Examples include Wormtongue from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Goneril and Regan from King Lear, and Iago from Othello.

Historians and philosophers have paid attention to flattery as a problem in ethics and politics. Plutarch wrote an essay on "How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend." Julius Caesar was notorious for his flattery. In his Praise of Folly, Erasmus commended flattery because it "raises downcast spirits, comforts the sad, rouses the apathetic, stirs up the stolid, cheers the sick, restrains the headstrong, brings lovers together and keeps them united." ^[1]

"To flatter" is also used to refer to artwork or clothing that makes the subject or wearer appear more attractive, as in:

The King was pleased with the portrait, as it was very flattering of his girth.
I think I'll wear the green dress because it flatters my legs.

References

^ Regier, Willis Goth. In Praise of Flattery (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007).

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Look up flattery or flatter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Quotes about flattery

Psychological manipulation

Positive reinforcement - appetitive stimulus	Attention Bribery Charm offensive Child grooming Flattery Giving gifts Ingratiation Love bombing Praise Seduction Smiling Superficial charm Superficial sympathy

Negative reinforcement - aversive stimulus	Anger Character assassination Crying Emotional blackmail Fear mongering Frowning Glaring Guilt trip Inattention Intimidation Nagging Nit-picking criticism Passive aggression Punishment Relational aggression Sadism Shaming (Name and shame) Silent treatment (blanking) Sulking Swearing Threats Victim blaming Victim playing Yelling

Other techniques	Bait-and-switch Deception Denial Deprogramming Disinformation Distortion Diversion Divide and rule Double bind Entrapment Evasion Exaggeration Gaslighting Good cop/bad cop Indoctrination Low-balling Lying Minimisation Moving the goalposts Pride-and-ego down Rationalization Reid technique Setting up to fail Trojan horse

Contexts	Abuse Advertising Bullying Confidence trick Interrogation Moral panic Media manipulation Mind control Mind games Mobbing Propaganda Salesmanship Scapegoating Smear campaign Social engineering (blagging) Spin Whispering campaign

Related topics	Antisocial personality disorder Assertiveness Blame Borderline personality disorder Dumbing down Enabling Fallacy Femme fatale Gaming the system Gullibility Histrionic personality disorder Impression management Machiavellianism Narcissism Narcissistic personality disorder Personal boundaries Persuasion Projection Psychopathy Self-esteem Sycophancy

Definição e significado de flattery

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Dicionario analógico

Flattery

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