All Topics  
Sycophant

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Sycophant
 
 
  Topics Sycophant Topic Home

A sycophant (from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 s???f??t?? sykophántes) is a servile person who, acting in his or her own self interest, attempts to win favor by flattering one or more influential persons, with an undertone that these actions are executed at the cost of his or her own personal pride
Pride

Pride is, depending upon context, either a high sense of the worth of one's self and one's own, or a pleasure taken in the contemplation of these things....
, principle
Principle

A principle is a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption. A rule or code of conduct. The laws or facts of nature underlying the working of an artificial device....
s, and peer respect
Respect

Respect is esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excellence of, a person, a personal quality, ability, or a manifestation of a personal quality or ability....
. Such a manner is called obsequiousness.

In ancient Greece
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 the word was the Athenian counterpart of the Roman delator
Delator

Delator is Latin for a denouncer, i.e. who indicates to a court another as having committed a punishable deed....
, a public informer.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Sycophant'
Start a new discussion about 'Sycophant'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A sycophant (from the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 s???f??t?? sykophántes) is a servile person who, acting in his or her own self interest, attempts to win favor by flattering one or more influential persons, with an undertone that these actions are executed at the cost of his or her own personal pride
Pride

Pride is, depending upon context, either a high sense of the worth of one's self and one's own, or a pleasure taken in the contemplation of these things....
, principle
Principle

A principle is a comprehensive and fundamental law, doctrine, or assumption. A rule or code of conduct. The laws or facts of nature underlying the working of an artificial device....
s, and peer respect
Respect

Respect is esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excellence of, a person, a personal quality, ability, or a manifestation of a personal quality or ability....
. Such a manner is called obsequiousness.

In ancient Greece
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 the word was the Athenian counterpart of the Roman delator
Delator

Delator is Latin for a denouncer, i.e. who indicates to a court another as having committed a punishable deed....
, a public informer. In modern Greek the term has retained its ancient classical meaning, and is still used to describe a slanderer or a calumniator.

Etymology


According to ancient authorities, the word (derived by them from s???? sykos, "fig", and fa??? fanes, "to show") meant one who informed against another for exporting fig
Common Fig

The Common fig is a large, deciduous, shrub or small tree native to southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean region . It grows to a height of 3-10m tall, with smooth grey bark....
s or for stealing the fruit of the sacred fig-trees, whether in time of famine
Famine

A famine is a widespread shortage of food that may apply to any faunal species, which phenomenon is usually accompanied by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased death....
 or on any other occasion (Plutarch, Life of Solon, 24, 2.). The Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989; as of December 2008 the dictionary's current editors have completed a quarter of the third edition....
, 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 sykon; cunt
Cunt

Cunt IPA:) is a vulgarism referring generally to the female genitalia, specifically the Cleft of Venus. The earliest citation of this usage in the Oxford English Dictionary, circa 1230, refers to the London street known as "Gropecunt Lane"....
.

Another old explanation was that fines and taxes were at one time paid in apples, wine and oil, and those who collected such payments in kind were often called sycophants because they publicly handed them in.

Popular culture


  • In Friends, the character Phoebe Buffet uses the word "sycophant" but does not know what it really means.
  • The 1972 "Fliegender Zirkus" episode of Monty Python features a skit in which Eric Idle hosts a talk program about Sycophancy. He interviews a "well-known Bristol sycophant", and then cuts away to view "some sycophants on film". http://orangecow.org/pythonet/zirkus/zirkus-2.html
  • In Obert Skye's Leven Thumps
    Leven Thumps

    Leven Thumps is a popular children's fantasy series by writer Obert Skye. The series, projected to have five books, deals with an orphaned 14-year old boy, Leven Thumps, who becomes involved in a battle between good and evil....
     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.
  • Alan the Sycophant was a bit character in the comic strip Dilbert
    Dilbert

    Dilbert is an United States of America comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. Dilbert is known for its satire office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title role....
     by Scott Adams
    Scott Adams

    Scott Raymond Adams is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several business commentaries, social satires and experimental philosophy books....
    .
  • In the US television series The Office
    The Office (US TV series)

    The Office is an Emmy-Award winning American Situation comedy airing on NBC and developed by Greg Daniels. It is an American adaptation of the BBC series The Office and depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company....
    , the character Dwight Schrute
    Dwight Schrute

    Dwight Kurt Schrute is a fictional character on NBC's The Office portrayed by Rainn Wilson. His counterpart in the original The Office of The Office is Gareth Keenan....
     is a sycophant towards his boss, Michael Scott.
  • In Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn
    Breaking Dawn

    Breaking Dawn is the fourth novel in the Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. It is the last novel of the Twilight saga to be told from Bella Swan's perspective....
    , Garrett refers to Renata as Aro's "sycophantic guard."
  • In Shakespeare's play The Tempest
    The Tempest

    The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610?11, although some researchers have argued for an earlier dating. Its protagonist is the banished sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, who uses his magical powers to punish and forgive his enemies when he raises a tempest that drives them ashore....
     Caliban is sycophantic towards Stephano.
  • In KMFDM's 1999 album Adios, Sycophant is the name of the second track
  • In the movie Batman Begins, the character Bruce Wayne (played by Christian Bale) calls all of his birthday party guests "Sycophantic suck-ups"
  • In World Wrestling Entertainment, Chris Jericho characterizes opposing wrestlers as sycophants, largely because they ignore morals and ethics in order to appease the crowds. By that same token, he also calls the fans sycophants for admiring, cheering, and supporting wrestlers that often "cheat" in their matches.


External links