sycophant

• n. 谄媚者；奉承者
• adj. 奉承的；拍马的

来自拉丁语 sycopanta,来自希腊语 sykophantes,告密者，诽谤者，字面意思为展示无花果的人， 来自 sykon,无花果，-phant,显现，展示，词源同 epiphany,phantasm.其词源说法不一，其中两

sycophant

sycophant: [16] Sycophants are etymologically ‘fig-showers’. The word comes via Latin sychophanta from Greek súkophántēs, a compound formed from súkon ‘fig’ and -phántēs ‘shower’, a derivative of phaínein ‘show’ (source of English fancy, phantom, etc). Súkon (which probably came from a Semitic source that also produced Latin ficus ‘fig’, source of English fig) was used metaphorically for ‘cunt’, and hence for an ‘indecent gesture made by putting the thumb into the mouth or between two fingers’.

People who grassed on criminals were said to ‘show them the fig’ – ‘show them two fingers’, as it might be expressed in modern English. And so the term súkophántēs came to be used for an ‘informer’, and eventually, via ‘one who ingratiates himself by informing’, for a ‘flatterer’ or ‘toady’.
=> fancy, phantom, sycamore

sycophant (n.)

1530s (in Latin form sycophanta), "informer, talebearer, slanderer," from Middle French sycophante and directly from Latin sycophanta, from Greek sykophantes "false accuser, slanderer," literally "one who shows the fig," from sykon "fig" (see fig) + phainein "to show" (see phantasm). "Showing the fig" was a vulgar gesture made by sticking the thumb between two fingers, a display which vaguely resembles a fig, itself symbolic of a vagina (sykon also meant "vulva"). The modern accepted explanation is that prominent politicians in ancient Greece held aloof from such inflammatory gestures, but privately urged their followers to taunt their opponents. The sense of "mean, servile flatterer" is first recorded in English 1570s.

The explanation, long current, that it orig. meant an informer against the unlawful exportation of figs cannot be substantiated. [OED]

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2. She was all over him at the office party. what a sycophant!

办公室聚会的时候,他对她大鲜殷勤, 好个马屁精!

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3. A sycophant flatterer is neither a guru or a preacher.

一个谄媚者既非古茹也不是传教士.

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4. Bestowing favor on a dubious sycophant often lead to the downfall of dynasties.

宠用奸佞是历代王朝亡国的重要原因.

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