sycophant

noun sy·co·phant \ ˈsi-kə-fənt also ˈsī- & -ˌfant \

|Updated on: 22 Jul 2018

Tip: Synonym Guide

Examples: sycophant in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of sycophant

: a servile self-seeking flatterer

—

sycophant

adjective

See sycophant defined for English-language learners

See sycophant defined for kids

sycophant was our Word of the Day on 08/27/2015. Hear the podcast!

Examples of sycophant in a Sentence

His press conference on January 11 was all aimed toward a single moment. The President was at his rostrum at the Élysée, with a crowd of courtiers, journalists, and sycophants herded behind a velvet rope. One reporter was allowed across the rope to put the same question, in exactly the same words, as he had put when Chirac had been nearing the end of his first term: Would he perhaps consider standing for a further five years? —Julian Barnes, New York Review, 29 Mar. 2007
And swirling all around were coteries of agents, managers, execs, and moneymen; publicists and journalists, gawkers and sycophants. —Daniel Fierman et al., Entertainment Weekly, 9 June 2006
Where his father liked to have sycophants, he likes to be with intellectuals. He likes confrontation. —Franklin Foer, New Republic, 14 Jan. 2002
when her career was riding high, the self-deluded actress often mistook sycophants for true friends

Recent Examples of sycophant from the Web

Donald Trump will continue to put sycophants in high places.

— willie brown, SFChronicle.com, "Scott Pruitt is just the symptom. The disease is Trump," 7 July 2018
Employees who persisted in doing so were usually marginalized or fired, while sycophants were promoted.

— john carreyrou, WIRED, "A New Look Inside Theranos’ Dysfunctional Corporate Culture," 21 May 2018
It’s also why sycophants entrenched in and defending the status quo are terrified.

— valerie strauss, Washington Post, "Betsy DeVos: Nothing Presidents Barack Obama or George W. Bush did in education reform really worked," 16 Jan. 2018
Mostly, Getty surrounds himself with hangers-on and sycophants, prodding what amounts to his royal court to debate who loves him the most.

— brian lowry, CNN, "'Billions' and 'Trust' share jaded view of the ruthless rich," 23 Mar. 2018
Kim Jung Un, urging his nation of sycophants on in wildly over-the-top applause, which has a clap-hard-or-die feel to it.

— james stavridis, Time, "Admiral Stavridis: Our Troops Deserve Better Than Trump's Big Parade," 7 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sycophant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

In ancient Greece, sykophantēs meant "slanderer." It derives from two other Greek words, sykon (meaning "fig") and phainein (meaning "to show or reveal"). How did fig revealers become slanderers? One theory has to do with the taxes Greek farmers were required to pay on the figs they brought to market. Apparently, the farmers would sometimes try to avoid making the payments, but squealers—fig revealers—would fink on them, and they would be forced to pay. Another possible source is a sense of the word fig meaning "a gesture or sign of contempt" (as thrusting a thumb between two fingers). In any case, Latin retained the "slanderer" sense when it borrowed a version of sykophantēs, but by the time English speakers in the 16th century borrowed it as sycophant, the squealers had become flatterers.

Origin and Etymology of sycophant

borrowed from Latin sȳcophanta, borrowed from Greek sȳkophántēs, literally, "one who shows the fig," from sŷkon "fig" (perhaps in reference to an apotropaic gesture made by inserting the thumb between the index and second fingers) + -phantēs, agentive derivative of phaínein "to reveal, show, make known"; perhaps from the use of such a gesture in denouncing a culprit — more at ¹fig, ¹fancy

Note: The origin of Greek sȳkophántēs, applied in ancient Athens to private individuals who brought prosecutions in which they had no personal stake, was already under debate by ancient writers. The "apotropaic gesture" hypothesis given here was presented early on by Arthur Bernard Cook ("CΥΚΟΦΑΝΤΗC," The Classical Review, vol. 31 [1907], pp. 133-36); Cook also usefully summarizes ancient speculation (as the idea that the original sȳkophántēs denounced those who illegally exported figs from Attica). The objection has been made that the basic notion "one who makes the fig gesture" does not account for the extremely negative connotations of the word ("slanderer, calumniator, etc."), but other explanations (as, for example, that a sȳkophántēs revealed figs hidden in a malefactor's clothing, or initiated a prosecution for something of as little value as a fig) seem even less likely. A more nuanced, if not entirely convincing account, based on presumed fig metaphors in Athenian culture, is in Danielle Allen, The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens (Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 156 passim.

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1575

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

sycophant Synonyms

Synonyms

bootlicker, fawner, flunky (also flunkey), toady;

Related Words

yes-man;

hanger-on, leech, parasite, sponge, sponger;

henchman, lackey, minion, stooge;

groveler, idolater (or idolator), worshipper (or worshiper), zealot;

adherent, convert, disciple, follower, partisan (also partizan), pupil, votary;

Synonym Discussion of sycophant

parasite, sycophant, toady, leech, sponge mean a usually obsequious flatterer or self-seeker. parasite applies to one who clings to a person of wealth, power, or influence or is useless to society.