Why is it called a curry comb? - PART 2

I was talking to the barn manager, Suzanne Ward, at Rock Creek after my first posting about where the word "curry" in curry comb came from. Suzanne is very knowledgeable when it comes to horses and when it comes to random tid-bits and facts. So, it should not have been a surprise to me that she had a more definitive answer regarding the curry comb.

According to Suzanne, the word curry as it relates to the curry comb was first used in a 14th century French poem called "Roman de Fauvel" by Gervais De Bus. Roman de Fauvel is translated as the Faun Colored Beast. In the poem there is a donkey whose name is Fauvel. "The donkey's name, which when broken down forms fau-vel, or "veiled lie", also forms an acrostic in which each letter stands for one of the seven deadly sins: Flaterie (Flattery), Avarice (Greed), Vilanie (Guile), Variété (Inconstancy), Envie (Envy), and Lacheté (Cowardice)." (1) It has also been suggested that historically the word "fauvel" is where the word english "favel" came from in relation to currying favor. In my previous posting I referenced the idea of the words "fauvel" and "favel" having a relationship with favor, as in currying favor. In the poem, " The English expression "to curry Fauvel", (now to "curry favor") arose from the scene in which potentates descended so low as to brush down the donkey and clean him off." (1)

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_de_Fauvel