Sycophant Definition

sĭkə-fənt, sīkə-
sycophants
noun
sycophants
A person who seeks favor by flattering people of wealth or influence; parasite; toady.
Webster's New World

One who seeks to gain through the powerful and influential.

Wiktionary
Antonyms:
verb

To inform against; hence, to calumniate.

Wiktionary

To play the sycophant toward; to flatter obsequiously.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Sycophant

Noun

Singular:
sycophant
Plural:
sycophants

Origin of Sycophant

  • 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

  • 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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