put lipstick on a pig
to make something ugly look beautiful
TRANSLATION
to put lipstick on a pig = etw. schönreden --- Google hits 373,000 results
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Crowe, the chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, said he had put as much LIPSTICK ON THE PIG as he could.
biz journals
biz journals
Did you
know?
put lipstick on a pig
colloquial phrase
- to put "lipstick on a pig" is a rhetorical expression, used to convey the message that making superficial or cosmetic changes is a futile attempt to disguise the true nature of a product or person.
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ORIGIN
Pigs have long been featured in proverbial expressions: a "pig's ear", a "pig in a poke", as well as the Biblical expressions, "pearls before swine" and "ring of gold in a swine's snout." Indeed, whereas the phrase "lipstick on a pig" seems to have been coined in the 20th century, the concept of the phrase goes back further in history.
The similar expression, "You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear" seems to have been in use by the middle of the 16th century or earlier. Thomas Fuller, the British physician, noted the use of the phrase "A hog in armour is still but a hog" in 1732, here, as the Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796) later noted "hog in armour" alludes to "an awkward or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed."
Early 21st-century usage
In May 2002, brokerage firm Charles Schwab Corporation ran a television advertisement pointing out Wall Street brokerage firms' conflicts of interest by showing an unidentified sales manager telling his salesmen,
"Let's put some lipstick on this pig!" The ad appeared shortly after New York's Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced that Merrill Lynch stock analysts had recommended stocks that they privately called "dogs." CBS refused to air the ad.
The phrase was then used in political rhetoric to criticize spin, and to insinuate that a political opponent is attempting to repackage established policies and present them as new.
Victoria Clarke, who was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs under Donald Rumsfeld, argued, using anecdotes from her own career, that spin does not work in an age of transparency, when everyone will find out the truth anyway ("you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig").
By 2008, the phrase had become mainstream. It was used by many US politicians, including the Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain during the United States Presidential Election of 2008, and Vice President Dick Cheney, who called it his "favorite line".
(adapted from Wiki)
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Their re-branding of last year's product is just putting LIPSTICK ON A PIG."
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QUICK, before you go, CONSOLIDATE YOUR MEMORY !
A next-day review boosts memory by 70%
What was yesterday's OWAD?
schwanger = K____-U_
"K____-U_ is an OK-phrase in the U.K. but in the U.S. it is problematical."
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KNOCK-U_
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KNOCK-UP
colloquial phrase
- to put "lipstick on a pig" is a rhetorical expression, used to convey the message that making superficial or cosmetic changes is a futile attempt to disguise the true nature of a product or person.
---
ORIGIN
Pigs have long been featured in proverbial expressions: a "pig's ear", a "pig in a poke", as well as the Biblical expressions, "pearls before swine" and "ring of gold in a swine's snout." Indeed, whereas the phrase "lipstick on a pig" seems to have been coined in the 20th century, the concept of the phrase goes back further in history.
The similar expression, "You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear" seems to have been in use by the middle of the 16th century or earlier. Thomas Fuller, the British physician, noted the use of the phrase "A hog in armour is still but a hog" in 1732, here, as the Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796) later noted "hog in armour" alludes to "an awkward or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed."
Early 21st-century usage
In May 2002, brokerage firm Charles Schwab Corporation ran a television advertisement pointing out Wall Street brokerage firms' conflicts of interest by showing an unidentified sales manager telling his salesmen,
"Let's put some lipstick on this pig!" The ad appeared shortly after New York's Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced that Merrill Lynch stock analysts had recommended stocks that they privately called "dogs." CBS refused to air the ad.
The phrase was then used in political rhetoric to criticize spin, and to insinuate that a political opponent is attempting to repackage established policies and present them as new.
Victoria Clarke, who was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs under Donald Rumsfeld, argued, using anecdotes from her own career, that spin does not work in an age of transparency, when everyone will find out the truth anyway ("you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig").
By 2008, the phrase had become mainstream. It was used by many US politicians, including the Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain during the United States Presidential Election of 2008, and Vice President Dick Cheney, who called it his "favorite line".
(adapted from Wiki)
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Their re-branding of last year's product is just putting LIPSTICK ON A PIG."
---
QUICK, before you go, CONSOLIDATE YOUR MEMORY !
A next-day review boosts memory by 70%
What was yesterday's OWAD?
schwanger = K____-U_
"K____-U_ is an OK-phrase in the U.K. but in the U.S. it is problematical."
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KNOCK-U_
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KNOCK-UP
