sycophant

Meaning

Noun

1. One who uses obsequious compliments to gain self-serving favour or advantage from another; a servile flatterer.
2. One who seeks to gain through the powerful and influential.
3. (obsolete) An informer; a talebearer.

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To inform against; hence, to calumniate.
2. (rare, transitive) To play the sycophant toward; to flatter obsequiously.

Synonyms

toady

flatterer

lickspittle

bootlicker

crawler

adulator

parasite

flunky

ass-kisser

hanger-on

fawner

brown-noser

lackey

fawning

obsequious

traducer

unctuous

yes-man

apple polisher

apple-polisher

brownnoser

tea-server

Spaniel

sweet talker

toadyish

cookie-pusher

sycophantic courtier

brown noser

brown-nose

calumniator

deferential

groveling

grovelling

ingratiating

leech

malinger

pickthank

slanderer

sponge

🧽

suck

sycophantic

mud slinger

Translations

flagorneur

Schmeichler

sicofanta

sicofante

adulador

sicofante

lèche-bottes

bajulador

Kriecher

Schleimer

leccapiedi

puxa-saco

Speichellecker

ruffiano

dalkavuk

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈsɪkəfænt/

Etymology

Cognate with Italian: sicofante

Cognate with Spanish: sicofanta

In summary

First attested in 1537. From Latin sȳcophanta (“informer, trickster”), from Ancient Greek συκοφάντης (sukophántēs), itself from σῦκον (sûkon, “fig”) + φαίνω (phaínō, “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 (sûkon), 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.