| sycophant Jun 7th 2013, 23:01 | | | | Line 73: | Line 73: | | | * '''1863''' — [[w:Leo Tolstoy|Leo Tolstoy]], ''[[s:War and Peace|War and Peace]]'', Book IX Ch. XI | | * '''1863''' — [[w:Leo Tolstoy|Leo Tolstoy]], ''[[s:War and Peace|War and Peace]]'', Book IX Ch. XI | | | *: It is only because military men are invested with pomp and power and crowds of '''sychophants''' flatter power, attributing to it qualities of genius it does not possess. | | *: It is only because military men are invested with pomp and power and crowds of '''sychophants''' flatter power, attributing to it qualities of genius it does not possess. | | − | * '''1927-29''' — [[w:Mahatma Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi]], ''[[s:An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth|An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth]], Part II, Preparing for South Africa'', translated '''1940''' by [[w:Mahadev Desai|Mahadev Desai]] | + | * '''1927–29''' — [[w:Mahatma Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi]], ''[[s:An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth|An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth]], Part II, Preparing for South Africa'', translated '''1940''' by [[w:Mahadev Desai|Mahadev Desai]] | | | *: Princes were always at the mercy of others and ready to lend their ears to '''sycophants'''. | | *: Princes were always at the mercy of others and ready to lend their ears to '''sycophants'''. | | | | | |
Latest revision as of 23:01, 7 June 2013 English[edit] Etymology[edit] First attested in 1537. From Latin sȳcophanta ("informer, trickster"), from Ancient Greek συκοφάντης (sukophantēs), itself from σῦκον (sukon, "fig") + φαίνω (phainō, "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 (sukon), which also meant vulva. The story behind this etymology is that politicians in ancient Greece steered clear of displaying that vulgar gesture, but urged their followers sub rosa to taunt their opponents by using it. Pronunciation[edit] - IPA: /ˈsɪkəfænt/, /ˈsɪkəfənt/
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sycophant (plural sycophants) - One who uses compliments to gain self-serving favor or advantage from another.
- Dryden
- A sycophant will everything admire: / Each verse, each sentence, sets his soul on fire.
- One who seeks to gain through the powerful and influential.
- (obsolete) An informer; a talebearer.
- Sir Philip Sidney
- Accusing sycophants, of all men, did best sort to his nature.
Synonyms[edit] Translations[edit] one who uses compliments to gain self-serving favor or advantage from another person. - Arabic: متملق ذليل (ar) (mutamalliq ḏalīl) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 巴兒狗 (cmn), 巴儿狗 (cmn) (bārgǒu)
- Danish: spytslikker (da) c
- Dutch: gatlikker (nl), kontlikker (nl), kruiper (nl), pluimstrijker (nl), bruinwerker (nl), vleier (nl)
- Estonian: takkakiitja (et), pealekaebaja (et)
- Finnish: imartelija (fi)
- French: flagorneur (fr) m
- German: Kriecher (de) m, Schmeichler (de) m, Speichellecker (de) m, Schleimer (de) m
- Icelandic: smjaðrari (is) m, höfðingjasleikja (is) f, undirlægja (is) f
- Italian: ruffiano (it) m, delatore (it) m, leccaculo (it) m, adulatore (it) m
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked Quotations[edit] | | | | 1775 1787 | 1841 1863 | 1927 | | | ME « | 15th c. | 16th c. | 17th c. | 18th c. | 19th c. | 20th c. | 21st c. |
- 1775 — John Adams, Novanglus Essays, No. 3
- This language, "the imperial crown of Great Britain," is not the style of the common law, but of court sycophants.
- 1787 — Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 71
- They know from experience that they sometimes err; and the wonder is that they so seldom err as they do, beset, as they continually are, by the wiles of parasites and sycophants, by the snares of the ambitious, the avaricious, the desperate, by the artifices of men who possess their confidence more than they deserve it, and of those who seek to possess rather than to deserve it.
- 1841 — Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge, Ch. 43
- this man, who has crawled and crept through life, wounding the hands he licked, and biting those he fawned upon: this sycophant, who never knew what honour, truth, or courage meant...
- 1863 — Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book IX Ch. XI
- It is only because military men are invested with pomp and power and crowds of sychophants flatter power, attributing to it qualities of genius it does not possess.
- 1927–29 — Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, Part II, Preparing for South Africa, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai
- Princes were always at the mercy of others and ready to lend their ears to sycophants.
Derived terms[edit] terms derived from sycophant sycophant (third-person singular simple present sycophants, present participle sycophanting, simple past and past participle sycophanted) - (transitive) To inform against; hence, to calumniate.
- Milton
- Sycophanting and misnaming the work of his adversary.
- (transitive) To play the sycophant toward; to flatter obsequiously.
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