逐日一词flatter（巴结）
In William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar it is said that a sure way to flatter Caesar is to remind him how he hates flatterers.
在剧作《凯撒大帝》中，莎士比亚写道，巴结凯撒大帝最稳妥的办法就是，报告他他是怎样地憎恨巴结者。
Of course to flatter someone is to say nice things about them.
固然了，巴结或人就是指对或人说中听的话。
Unfortunately there is a sense about this word that the nice things being said aren’t necessarily true. Instead, as in Shakespeare’s example, flattery can be seen as simply designed to butter up the victim.
不幸的是，这个词也隐含了一层意思：中听的话未必反应真原形况。在莎翁的作品中，巴结更是指代用来蒙骗遇害者的话。
Anatoly Liberman includes the word flatter in his recently released Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology*. There he lays out a few potential etymologies for flatter, one of which is a Latin root meaning to “make big” as flattery would do to one’s ego.
俄国言语学家Anatoly Liberman将flatter收录于他2008年出书的作品《英语词源分析辞书》（Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology）。他在书中列出几个约莫的词源，此中一个拉丁词源意指“使增大”，正如巴结（flattery）使人的自傲心变大。
That’s not what Professor Liberman thinks is most likely though.
不外，Liberman传授并不以为它是最有约莫的词源。
The Oxford English Dictionary entry for flatter admits that its etymology is “doubtful” but suggests that flatter may be related to flat. The thinking here is that when someone’s ego needs stroking it’s as if you were flattening down their raised hackles or smoothing their feathers.
《牛津英语辞书》（OED）的flatter词条则坦率写道，它的词源“成疑”，但大概与flat（扁平的）有关。这里的想法是，当或人必要培养自傲心，他们就会假想仿佛有人正在抚平他们的羽毛，平复他们的怒气。
This OED entry has as its most recent citation something from 1909 so it certainly hasn’t been updated in the effort to bring about a third edition of the dictionary—it looks like it even missed the flattery of reexamination for the second edition.
OED上迩来的引证来自1909年，以是，它想必不会在第三版中更新——仿佛连在第二版中复查的时机都没有。
Still, the other etymological sources I checked seemed to agree with the OED.
即使云云，我查阅的其他材料仿佛与OED切合。
But with new eyes on the problem Anatoly Liberman does not.
Anatoly Liberman则重新的角度看成绩，并表达了不同的意见。
He does give this “flattening” theory a considerable amount of ink, but instead prefers the idea that flatter is evolved out of Germanic roots that also gave us flit and flutter.
他确真实“扁平”的词源上花了很大笔墨，但仍然倾向于另一个看法，即flatter由日耳曼语词的词根提高而来，同一个词根还演化出flit（飞，掠过）和flutter（拍翅，发抖）。
Think of the chirpiness of someone who is transparently attempting to ingratiate themselves with you. Their flapping about is meaningless and if it goes on too long, downright annoying. That annoyance certainly lines up with the negative tone that the word flatter carries.
请想想某些活蹦乱跳、显然是想媚谄于你的人。他们在你周围团团转，却没有任何意义，并且一旦胶葛不休，反而遭人厌恶。这种厌恶显然与巴结（flatter）有着相反的负面涵义。
Samuel Johnson expressed the negative in flattery with definitions included in his dictionary such as
塞缪尔·约翰逊在辞书中对flattery的界说就转达了这种负面涵义：
“to please with blandishments” and
“用甜言甜言让人愉悦”，另有
“to raise false hopes.”
“让人空欢乐一场”
He used the word too with its cutting edge.
他也使用过这个容易伤人的单词。
At one point after Johnson had achieved a reputation and was seen as one of the smarter people in London he was introduced to a woman named Hannah More. Hannah herself would later grow to be highly regarded but at this first meeting she was still an outsider recently arrived from the countryside.
在约翰逊博士名声鹊起、成为伦敦风云人物之后，他曾被引见给一名叫做汉娜·摩尔的密斯。汉娜厥后相反遭到人们敬重，不外他俩第一次晤面时，她还只是刚从乡下过去的外行人。
When she met Johnson she was effusive in her praise and eventually he shut her down by saying
当她碰到约翰逊，她不吝溢美之词，最初，约翰逊终于不由得让她闭嘴：
“Dearest lady, consider with yourself what your flattery is worth, before you bestow it so freely.”
“热爱的密斯，在你大方地美言巴结之前，请先想想它们毕竟有几多意义。”
Ouch!
犀利！
He made up for it later though. Hannah was asked her opinion of a popular play. Swimming upstream against the views of her companions she pointed out the play’s flaws. Johnson’s credibility was so high that when he agreed with her she instantly became a respected critic.
不外他厥后做了一些弥补。他向汉娜征求她对一部抢手戏剧的意见。与偕行们的广泛看法不同，汉娜反其道而行之，指出了剧中的一些成绩。约翰逊名声显赫，当他对汉娜的意见表现赞同，这位密斯立刻变成了一位受人恋慕的批评家。
（文章来自“译言网”，译者moonstruck）
