Other forms: lackeys
A lackey is a servant, or somebody who does another's bidding meekly. A liveried lackey, the boss's lackey, a pack of lackeys.
The literal sense is a uniformed footman and is historical. The figurative one is an insult accusing somebody of serving power without a mind of their own, and it was a favourite word of twentieth-century political abuse in several languages.
1nounlackeyA servant, or somebody who does another's bidding meekly.
“He's just the boss's lackey, doing whatever he's told without question.”
lackey is a servant.
Middle French laquais probably comes through Spanish from a word for a foot soldier.
Arabic
قائد
Turkish
ulak
Greek
λακές
Italian
lacchè
Spanish
lacayo
Old Occitan
lacai
Middle French
laquais
English, today
lackey
Borrowed from Middle French laquais, which is probably (via Old Occitan lacai?) from Spanish lacayo, itself perhaps from Italian lacchè and Greek λακές, from Turkish ulak. Another possibility is through French -, from Arabic قائد. See French laquais.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA