Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sycophant |
SycophantNoun1. A person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "sycophant" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1678. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | SYCOPHANT, n. One who approaches Greatness on his belly so that he may not be commanded to turn and be kicked. He is sometimes an editor. As the lean leech, its victim found, is pleased To fix itself upon a part diseased Till, its black hide distended with bad blood, It drops to die of surfeit in the mud, So the base sycophant with joy descries His neighbor's weak spot and his mouth applies, Gorges and prospers like the leech, although, Unlike that reptile, he will not let go. Gelasma, if it paid you to devote Your talent to the service of a goat, Showing by forceful logic that its beard Is more than Aaron's fit to be revered; If to the task of honoring its smell Profit had prompted you, and love as well, The world would benefit at last by you And wealthy malefactors weep anew -- Your favor for a moment's space denied And to the nobler object turned aside. Is't not enough that thrifty millionaires Who loot in freight and spoliate in fares, Or, cursed with consciences that bid them fly To safer villainies of darker dye, Forswearing robbery and fain, instead, To steal (they call it "cornering") our bread May see you groveling their boots to lick And begging for the favor of a kick? Still must you follow to the bitter end Your sycophantic disposition's trend, And in your eagerness to please the rich Hunt hungry sinners to their final ditch? In Morgan's praise you smite the sounding wire, And sing hosannas to great Havemeyher! What's Satan done that him you should eschew? He too is reeking rich -- deducting you. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Literature | Sycophant from the Greek suko-phantes, "fig-blabbers." The men of Athens passed a law forbidding the exportation of figs; the law was little more than a dead letter, but there were always found mean fellows who, for their own private ends, impeached those who violated it; hence sycophant came to signify first a government toady, and then a toady generally. "I here use `sycophant' in its original sense, as a wretch who flatters the prevailing party by informing against his neighbours, under pretence that they are exporters of prohibited flgs."- Coleridge: Biography, vol. iii. chap. x. p. 286. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
According to ancient authorities, the word (derived by them from συκο, "fig," and φανης, "to show") meant one who informed against another for exporting figs (which was forbidden by law) or for stealing the fruit of the sacred fig-trees, whether in time of famine or on any other occasion. Another old explanation was that fines and taxes were at one time paid in figs, wine and oil, and those who collected such payments in kind were called sycophants because they "presented," publicly handed them in.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sycophant."
Synonyms: SycophantSynonyms: crawler (n), lackey (n), toady (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Flatterer | Toady, toadeater; sycophant, courtier, Sir Pertinax MacSycophant; flaneur, proneur; puffer, touter, claqueur; clawback, earwig, doer of dirty work; parasite, hanger-on; (servility). |
Knave | Traitor, betrayer, archtraitor, conspirator, Judas, Catiline; reptile, serpent, snake in the grass, wolf in sheep's clothing, sneak, Jerry Sneak, squealer, tell-tale, mischief-maker; trimmer, fence-sitter, renegade; (tergiversation); truant, recreant; sycophant; (servility). |
Servility | Sycophant, parasite; toad, toady, toad-eater; tufthunter; snob, flunky, flunkey, yes-man, lapdog, spaniel, lickspittle, smell-feast, Graeculus esuriens, hanger on, cavaliere servente, led captain, carpet knight; timeserver, fortune hunter, Vicar of Bray, Sir-Pertinax, Max Sycophant, pickthank; flatterer; doer of dirty work; ame damnee, tool; reptile; slave; (servant); courtier; beat, dead beat, doughface , heeler, homme de cour, sponger, sucker, tagtail, truckler. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Sycophant |
| English words defined with "sycophant": Flibbergib, Footlicker ♦ Sycophantical, Sycophantish, Sycophantize ♦ To turn off, Toadeater. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "sycophant": Damocles' Sword ♦ Gospel according to .... (references) |
| Etymologies containing "sycophant": Flibbergib. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Uh what kind of sycophant would you like me to be? (101 Dalmatians; writing credit: John Hughes) What kind of sycophant are you? (101 Dalmatians; writing credit: John Hughes) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| "Sycophant" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 80.00% of the time. "Sycophant" is used about 5 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 80% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Noun (proper) | 20% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 5 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
sycophant | 24 |
define sycophant | 4 |
office sycophant | 2 |
definition sycophant | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "sycophant"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | lajkatar (adulatory, bootlicker, earthworm, flatterer, flunkey, flunky, honey-mouthed, lickspittle, obsequious, smooth tongued, soother, toad-eater, toad-eating, toady, wheedling). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | متملق ذليل, المتملق الذليل. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | подлизурко (bootlicker, groveller, lickspittle, spaniel, toady, truckler). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 巴'狗 (lackey, pekingese). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | pochlebník, patolízal (bootlicker, creep, groveller, lickspittle, toad-eater, toady). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | متملق , انگل (Guest, Leech, Parasite, Satellite, Sponge, Tagalong), ادم چاپلوس (Spaniel). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | hännystelijä. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | flagorneur (sycophantic), de flagorneur. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | schmeichler (adulator, blandisher, blandishers, cajoler, coaxer, fawner, flatterer, flatterers), höfling (courtier). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | συκοφάντησ (calumniator, malinger, mud slinger, slanderer, traducer), χαμερπήσ κόλαξ (spaniel). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מלחך פ כא (bootlicker, flatterer, lickspit, toadeater, toady), ח פן (flatterer, toady). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | talpnyaló (adulator, bootlicker, crawler, fawning, grovelling, minion, pipsqueak, slimy, spaniel, sycophantic, toad-eater, toady), hízelgő (cajoling, coaxing, complimentary, encomiast, fawning, flatterer, flattering, lackey, pipsqueak, smarmy, spaniel, sycophantic). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | leccapiedi (bootlicker, flunkey, flunky, lickspittle, toadies, toady). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 茶坊主 (flatterer, tea-server), 胡麻磨り (apple-polisher, brown-noser), 胡麻すり (apple-polisher, flatterer), 胡麻" (apple-polisher, brown-noser), 太"持ち (professional entertainer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | たい"もち (flatterer, professional entertainer, professional jester), "ますり (apple-polisher, brown-noser, flatterer), ちゃぼうず (flatterer, tea-server). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | foalserey (deceive, deceiver, hypocrite). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ycophantsay sicofanta. (various references) sicofant, periuţã (brush, smoothie, toady), parazit (dead beat, guest, hanger-on, leech, locust, parasite, parasitic, parasitical, pest, sponge, sponger, toady), linguşitor (adulatory, bootlicker, cajoler, cajoling, crawler, encomiast, fawning, flatterer, flattering, flunkey, gratifying, ingratiating, oilily, reptile, servile, sleek, smoothie, spaniel, supple, supply, toad, toad-eater, toad-eating, toady, yes man), lingãu (bootlicker, boot-licker, flunkey, glutton, lickspittle, minion, sponge, toad, toad-eater, toady), codiţã (defect, flourish, shortcoming). (various references) льстец (adulator, bootlicker, courtier, flatterer, lickspittle, soother, toad-eater). (various references) ulizica (bootlicker, groveller, lickspittle, sponger, toad-eater, toady, truckler, yes man, yesman). (various references) sicofante. (various references) smickrare (apple polisher, flatterer, lickspittle, toady). (various references) คนประจบประแจง. (various references) dalkavuk (adulator, adulatory, apple polisher, bootlicker, brown-nose, bumsucker, creeper, cringing, deadhead, flatterer, flunkey, flunky, groveler, groveller, lackey, minion, reptile, silky, soapy, toadeating, toady, tufthunter, yes man). (various references) яaranjaс (lickspittle, toady). (various references) блюдолиз (toady), підлесник (bootlicker, coax, courtier, flatterer, pickthank, toad, toady, wriggler). (various references) người nịnh hót, người bợ đỡ người ăn bám. (various references) gwenieithiwr (flatterer), cynffonnwr (toady). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | adulator, assentator, sycophanta. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sycophant": sycophantic, sycophantically, sycophantish, sycophantishly, sycophantism, sycophantisms, sycophantly, sycophants. (additional references) | |
| |
"Sycophant" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: psycophant, sacophant, siccophant, sicophant, snycophant, sycaphant, sychopant, sychophant, sychphant, sycofant, sycohpant, sycohphant, sycopahant, sycopant, sycophan, sycophanta, sycophante, sycophany, sycophat, sycrophant, syncophant, syrophant. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-h-n-o-p-s-t-y" | |
-1 letter: tachyons. | |
-2 letters: phytons, pythons, snatchy, tachyon, typhons. | |
-3 letters: astony, canopy, cantos, capons, chants, chanty, coapts, cotans, cytons, nachos, octans, pantos, patchy, pathos, phyton, poachy, potash, psycho, python, scanty, shanty, snatch, stanch, syphon, typhon, yachts, yapons. | |
-4 letters: antsy, ascot, atony, atopy, canso, canst, canto, cants, canty, caphs, capon, capos, chant, chaos, chaps, chapt, chats, chays. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-h-n-o-p-s-t-y" | |
+1 letter: sycophants. | |
+2 letters: sycophantic, sycophantly. | |
+3 letters: lycanthropes, sycophantish, sycophantism. | |
+4 letters: amphictyonies, antipsychotic, lycanthropies, phagocytosing, psychoanalyst, sycophantisms. | |
+5 letters: antipsychotics, hypothecations, nonpsychiatric, parenchymatous, psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic, sycophantishly. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Translations: Ancient | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
