Pic Of The Moment: Incoming! 2016 GOP Contenders Damn Chris Christie With Faint Praise

[MADem]

30. No--Earl is correct, you got that wrong. The term IS "Damn with FAINT praise."

In other words, the praise is there, but it's unenthusiastic, and the unenthusiasm of it is damning. You can ask Alexander Pope if you disbelieve me.

Here--for you; there's an entire WIKI on the subject:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damning_with_faint_praise

Damning with faint praise is an English idiom for words that effectively condemn by seeming to offer praise which is too moderate or marginal to be considered praise at all.[1] In other words, this phrase identifies the act of expressing a compliment so feeble that it amounts to no compliment at all, or even implies a kind of condemnation.[2]

The concept can be found in the work of the Hellenistic sophist and philosopher, Favorinus (c. 110 AD), who observed that faint and half-hearted praise was more harmful than loud and persistent abuse.[3]

The explicit phrasing of the modern English idiomic expression was first published by Alexander Pope in his 1734 poem, "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" in Prologue to the Satires.[4]

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.