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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 4, 2007 is:
sycophant \SIK-uh-funt\ noun
: a servile self-seeking flatterer
Examples:
"I can't stand sycophants," said Rosemary, "so if you want that promotion, do your best and let your work speak for itself."
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.
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