WaPo: Doocy 'Incomparably Sequacious'
Sequacious ("intellectually servile") wheedled its way into our top lookups on August 6th, 2018, through its appearance in an article in The Washington Post.
There, he decided to unfurl an inventory of the “the guys that we love” — that is, Fox News stars who support his cause, whatever that cause is. After plowing through some names — including Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, “the great Lou Dobbs” and the incomparably sequacious Steve Doocy of “Fox & Friends — Trump caught himself: “I’m in trouble, ’cause I know I left out probably 10,” he said.
—Erik Wemple, The Washington Post, 6 Aug. 2018
Sequacious (which, in case you were wondering, is never used as a compliment), may be traced back to the Latin sequax (which means "inclined to follow"). The word dates to the first half of the 17th century; our earliest citation is from Edward Reynold's 1640 beach-read A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soule of Man With the Severall Dignities and Corruptions Thereunto Belonging. In addition to "intellectually servile," sequacious has a secondary meaning, which is "subservient." This sense is now considered archaic, and little used.
Remove the Occasions of it, withdraw Fuell from so catching a Flame. They say of Turpentine, and some other like things. That they will draw and sucke Fire unto them. Certainely of all Fire there is none so ductile, so sequacious and obsequious, as this of Wrath.
—Edward Reynolds A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soule of Man With the Severall Dignities and Corruptions Thereunto Belonging, 1640.
