Cringing, groveling, servile lackeys and minions. Sycophants, in other words.
The term’s origin, in the Latin sȳcophanta, points to an older Greek term that might indicate someone who reported to authorities anyone who (get ready for it) unlawfully exported figs. This seems very odd to me. I have four fig trees on our farm; I’ve done two rounds of canning 20 half-pints of jam already and we STILL have figs. “Come get ’em!” I say to the crows. And still, more figs. Perhaps they were harder to grow in Ancient Greece?
The sages at the OED find this figgy tale a dubious etymology. But the idea conveys: someone who would do anything to be seen favorably by the powerful. Any informant, in that sense, would be a sycophant.
That said, the modern sense of the word gets conveyed well by the OED’s definition of a “mean, servile, cringing, or abject flatterer; a parasite, toady, lickspittle.” That word “lickspittle” is such a vivid British slur. I’m fond of the term “toady” as well. The adjectival form, sycophantic, works very well in the right places to elevate one’s diction.
Our word this week has made a bit of a comeback in the last decade. The OED tracks its frequency at a high point in the 1800s, then a roller-coaster dip until about, say, 2016. One does wonder. I leave it to you to guess why.
Meanwhile, I do not want your abject praise, idle flattery, or groveling. Stop it! But I do want words and metaphors of use in academic writing.
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See all of our Metaphors of the Month here and Words of the Week here.
Image: Karl Marx God, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail