sugar-coat
to make attractive
TRANSLATION
sugar-coat = etwas schönreden, beschönigen --- GOOGLE INDEX sugar-coat: approximately 2,300,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
As Detroit Mayor, Dave Bing Does Not SUGARCOAT the Issues
(New York Times headline)
---
There's no SUGARCOATING it: The economic downturn and austerity measures have inspired strikes and public demonstrations in Greece.
(Fox News)
(New York Times headline)
---
There's no SUGARCOATING it: The economic downturn and austerity measures have inspired strikes and public demonstrations in Greece.
(Fox News)
Did you
know?
sugar-coat (U.S. English - sugarcoat)
verb
- make superficially attractive or acceptable
(Oxford English Dictionary)
---
To understand the origin of the term "sugar-coat", we have to look at a couple of other expressions. In an unpleasant or difficult situation that must be accepted, we sometimes say "that's bitter medicine" or "that's a bitter pill to swallow." This of course stems from the days when many medications tasted very bitter.
To make them more palatable, manufacturers began coating pills with sugar in the late 19th century. The technique was actually developed by the confectionary industry and had the additional advantage of giving the pills an attractive, glossy appearance. The downside was that the process was very tedious and time-consuming. This led manufacturers to eventually develop other types of coatings for pills.
The term "sugar-coat" lives on though, mainly in the figurative sense of making something appear more pleasant, appealing or to artificially make something more attractive. It's often used to denote an attempt to gloss over a difficult situation or to avoid a hard truth.
The English "sugar" itself is a 13th century word that comes from the French "sucre" and further from the Medieval Latin "succarum" by way of several middle eastern cognates such as the Arabic "sukkar," Persian "shaker" and the Sanskrit "sharkara," meaning ground or candied sugar. The original sense was grit or gravel and is cognate with the Greek "kroke," or pebble.
The Arabic word was also borrowed in Italian (zucchero), Spanish (azucar) and German (Zucker), and its forms are represented in most European languages including Serbian (cukar), Polish (cukier) and Russian (sakhar).
The Latin "saccharum, saccharron" also gave us the adjective "saccharine" in the metaphoric sense of "overly sweet or sentimental," which was first recorded in the mid 1800s. Saccharin (without the "e" on the end) also refers to an artificial, calorie-free sweetener that is about 500 times sweeter than sugar.
---
SYNONYMS
gloss over, camouflage, cover up, veneer, whitewash
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"There's no sugar-coating it, to stay in business we have to cut costs."
---
Thanks to Rainer for suggesting today's word!
verb
- make superficially attractive or acceptable
(Oxford English Dictionary)
---
To understand the origin of the term "sugar-coat", we have to look at a couple of other expressions. In an unpleasant or difficult situation that must be accepted, we sometimes say "that's bitter medicine" or "that's a bitter pill to swallow." This of course stems from the days when many medications tasted very bitter.
To make them more palatable, manufacturers began coating pills with sugar in the late 19th century. The technique was actually developed by the confectionary industry and had the additional advantage of giving the pills an attractive, glossy appearance. The downside was that the process was very tedious and time-consuming. This led manufacturers to eventually develop other types of coatings for pills.
The term "sugar-coat" lives on though, mainly in the figurative sense of making something appear more pleasant, appealing or to artificially make something more attractive. It's often used to denote an attempt to gloss over a difficult situation or to avoid a hard truth.
The English "sugar" itself is a 13th century word that comes from the French "sucre" and further from the Medieval Latin "succarum" by way of several middle eastern cognates such as the Arabic "sukkar," Persian "shaker" and the Sanskrit "sharkara," meaning ground or candied sugar. The original sense was grit or gravel and is cognate with the Greek "kroke," or pebble.
The Arabic word was also borrowed in Italian (zucchero), Spanish (azucar) and German (Zucker), and its forms are represented in most European languages including Serbian (cukar), Polish (cukier) and Russian (sakhar).
The Latin "saccharum, saccharron" also gave us the adjective "saccharine" in the metaphoric sense of "overly sweet or sentimental," which was first recorded in the mid 1800s. Saccharin (without the "e" on the end) also refers to an artificial, calorie-free sweetener that is about 500 times sweeter than sugar.
---
SYNONYMS
gloss over, camouflage, cover up, veneer, whitewash
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"There's no sugar-coating it, to stay in business we have to cut costs."
---
Thanks to Rainer for suggesting today's word!
