Word of the Day

: December 5, 2007

toady

noun TOH-dee

What It Means

: one who flatters in the hope of gaining favors : sycophant

toady in Context

The editorial unfairly characterizes the appointee as one of the mayor's toadies, ignoring her long record of unselfish service to the community.

Did You Know?

We can thank old-time toadeaters for today's word. In 17th-century Europe, a toadeater was a showman's assistant whose job was to make the boss look good. The toadeater would eat (or pretend to eat) what were supposed to be poisonous toads. His or her charlatan master would then "save" the toad-afflicted assistant by expelling the poison. It's little wonder that such assistants became symbolic of extreme subservience, and that "toadeater" became a word for any obsequious underling. By the early 1800s, it had been shortened and altered to "toady," our current term for a servile self-seeker.