@Neverfadingwood

Many years ag, I was fascinated to learn the origin of the phrase to 'curry favour with...'

According to the Oxford English dictionary, the 'curry' part refers to the act of combing or grooming a horse (as in curry comb; an item that will be familiar to horsey folk) and the 'favour' part is a corruption of Favel, the colour of the Devil's horse. So the original derivation was to 'groom the devil's horse'.