Sycophant Definition
One who seeks to gain through the powerful and influential.
To inform against; hence, to calumniate.
To play the sycophant toward; to flatter obsequiously.
Other Word Forms of Sycophant
Noun
Origin of Sycophant
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First attested in 1537. From Latin sȳcophanta (“informer, trickster"), from Ancient Greek συκοφάντης (sukophantÄ“s), itself from σῦκον (sukon, “fig") + φαίνω (phainō, “I 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 (sukon), which also meant vulva. The story behind this etymology is that politicians in ancient Greece steered clear of displaying that vulgar gesture, but urged their followers sub rosa to taunt their opponents by using it.
From Wiktionary
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Latin sȳcophanta informer, slanderer from Greek sūkophantēs informer from sūkon phainein to show a fig (perhaps originally said of denouncers of theft or exportation of figs or of persons making a lascivious gesture resembling a fig) sūkon fig phainein to show bhā-1 in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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