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Sycophant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (October 2006) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
A sycophant (Gr. συκοφάντης) is a servile person who, acting in their own self interest, attempts to win favor by flattering one or more influential people, with an undertone that this is at the cost of their own personal pride, principles, and peer respect.
In ancient Greece the word was the counterpart of the Roman "delator": a public informer.
According to ancient authorities, the word (derived by them from συκο suko, "fig", and φανης fanēs, "to show") meant one who informed against another for exporting figs (which was forbidden by law) or for stealing the fruit of the sacred fig-trees, whether in time of famine or on any other occasion (Plutarch, Life of Solon, 24, 2.). The Oxford English Dictionary, however, states that this explanation, though common, "cannot be substantiated", and suggests that it may refer instead to the insulting gesture of "making a fig" or to an obscene alternate meaning for "fig", namely sykon which means cunt.[1]
Another old explanation was that fines and taxes were at one time paid in figs, wine and oil, and those who collected such payments in kind were often called sycophants because they publicly handed them in.[citation needed]
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In modern Greek the term has retained its ancient classical meaning, and is still used to describe a slanderer or a calumniator.
- In Obert Skye's Leven Thumps series of children's books, "sycophant" also refers to a race of small furry creatures whose job is to aid people who have entered Foo.
