|
In a (not so?) recent episode of the most excellent QI, Mr Fry talked about a word which meant liking a part of something although not liking (detesting?) the whole entity; e.g. liking the martial music of Hitlers Germany but detesting the Nazi regime in its entirety. Anyone know what the word is I am am looking for? I have been searching the internet for some considerable time trying to get the answer but without success. Grateful if someone can help. |
|||||||||||||||
|
|
From what I know of Stephen Fry, it’s quite possible that, as donothingsuccessfully suggests, the phrase was curate's egg, from “True Humility”, a famous 1895 Punch cartoon by George DuMaurier:
Bishop: “I’m afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones”; Curate: “Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!” The phrase denotes an effort to find some redeeming feature in something hopelessly bad. |
||||
|
|
|
The term cherry-pick may come close, even if it is not dead-on
This generally refers to selecting what is choice from among the dross. There is not necessarily a suggestion of detesting the remainder, just not thinking it is worthwhile. It is more often used in connection with acquisition, but could be used with ideological selection, as in
|
|||
|
|
