Other forms: sycophants
A sycophant is somebody who flatters the powerful for what they can get. Surrounded by sycophants.
The flattery is the method and the gain is the purpose, which is what makes it contemptible. Anybody powerful enough to be surrounded by a sycophant is the last to notice.
1nounsycophantSomebody who flatters the powerful for what they can get.
“Every sycophant in the office had the same opinion by Friday.”
sycophant is a person.
The Greek parts mean fig-shower: the man who pointed out who was stealing figs, to get himself in with the powerful. A sycophant still does that.
hooks ontofig
Greek sykophantes literally meant fig-shower and named an informer; the path to flatterer is obscure.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰeh₂-
Ancient Greek
συκοφάντης
Latin
sȳcophanta — informer, trickster
English, today
sycophant
Built from
1537. From Latin sȳcophanta (“informer, trickster”), from Ancient Greek συκοφάντης, itself from σῦκον (“fig”) + φαίνω (“to show, demonstrate”). The gesture of "showing the fig" was a vulgar one, which was made by sticking the thumb between two fingers, a display which vaguely resembles a fig, which is itself symbolic of a σῦκον, which also meant vulva. The story behind this etymology is that politicians in ancient Greece steered clear of displaying that vulgar gesture, but secretly urged their followers to taunt their opponents by using it. Cognate with Italian sicofante, Spanish sicofanta.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA