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Gilding the Lily
Reference to an ornament, as in Lilly. A Lilly was an ornamental piece
or decoration, which did not need further improvement or embellishment.
Therefore it follows that "gilding the Lilly," means to add
hyperbole to an otherwise unremarkable event or story.
A site visitor emailed this:
Your explanation is incorrect: gilding the lily means to add to an already perfect thing. The lily has a long-standing reputation for being beautiful, artistically and esthetically pure (hence it became a symbol of purity). To gild it is to ruin it. So to "gild the lily" is to be tasteless enough not to know beauty when it is before you. It's overkill.
Another site visitor emailed this:
I want to disagree with your explanation of "gilding the lily" which I've always heard used as referring to the redundant and unneccesary effort to increase the value (beauty) of the already valuable (beautiful). Thus, to gild the lily would be to add gold to a flower in an attempt to make beautiful what was already beautiful. The American Heritage Dictinary of Idioms supports this interpretation and cites a passage from Shakespeare's King John as, in consensed form, the source: "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily ... is wasteful and ridiculous excess."
Another site visitor emailed this:
On you page, you explain "Gilding the Lily" as follows: Reference to an ornament, as in Lilly. A Lilly was an ornamental piece or decoration, which did not need further improvement or embellishment. Therefore it follows that "gilding the Lilly," means to add hyperbole to an otherwise unremarkable event or story." Actually, it doesn't follow. What follows is that "gilding the Lilly" means to add what is not necessary (possibly hyperbole to a story) to something that is ALREADY remarkable. Sort of like "coals to Newcastle". In the case of a story, that might be telling a story about the gorilla that was running loose on the football field, and adding the false statement that the gorilla was purple. The gorilla on the football field would have already been a great story. There is a subtle implication that what was added has actually detracted from what was already perfect. For clarification, see the context of the source.
Another site visitor emailed this:
"Gilding the Lilly" is another of the many quotations from Shakespeare that have been mangled:
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess
King John. Act iv. Sc. 2.
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