When Figurative Language Fails: Part 2
Lift Your Language
Gilding The Lily
‘To gild the lily’ means to try to improve something that’s already beautiful enough or perfectly functional. There’s also the suggestion that the attempt spoils the original.
If someone were to add layers of cosmetics to an already flawless complexion, it would be ‘gilding the lily’.
We could say the same about attempts to add unnecessary, flowery details to a simple and elegant piece of writing.
Many writers used this expression when trying to suggest that something imperfect is being disguised to appear better.
That’s definitely not what ‘gilding the lily’ means.
To use it in that way is a figurative language fail.
Examples:
His novel was tedious and boring; the exciting cover was just gilding the lily.
She really hated being there. The smiles and warm words were poor attempts to gild the lily.
The meaning in both these examples is wrong.
The sentences should have been written differently:
His novel was tedious and boring; the exciting cover was just window dressing.
She really hated being there. The smiles and warm words were poor attempts to put on a false (or fake) front.
For other contexts, similar expressions that are about covering up flaws or undesirable characteristics are:
It’s like putting lipstick on a pig.
It was mutton dressed up as lamb.
The facts were sugar-coated.
They are whitened sepulchres.
It’s all smoke and mirrors.
If you have others, I’d like to hear them.
Where did ‘gild the lily’ come from?
For those who want detail, ‘to gild the lily’ is a misquotation of Shakespeare.
The original is:
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily
To throw a perfume on the violet
…. Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
[King John Act IV, sc.ii, 11-16]
When you try to improve on natural beauty and ‘paint the lily’ or ‘perfume the violet’, that’s bad enough. To ‘gild refined gold’ – that is, to add a gold layer to pure gold – is definitely ‘ridiculous excess’ and about as pointless as it gets.
Whenever you use figurative language, make sure you know exactly what you are communicating