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. 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.
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History of the term
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.
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.
According to William Shepard Walsh, "There is a faint anticipation in William Wycherley's 'Double Dealer,' 'and libels everybody with dull praise,' But a closer parallel is in Phineas Fletcher, —"