Etymologically
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συκοφάντης

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /syː.ko.pʰán.tɛːs/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /sy.koˈɸan.tis/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /sy.koˈfan.tis/[1]

Forms

σῡκοφᾰ́ντης (sūkophántēs) m (genitive σῡκοφᾰ́ντου, feminine σῡκοφᾰ́ντρῐᾱ or σῡκοφᾰ́ντῐς); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of σῦκον (sûkon, “fig”) and φαίνω (phaínō, “to show, denounce”) with the agent suffix -της (-tēs): “one who shows the fig”.[1][2][3] Beekes and Frisk call it an expression of popular speech whose sense was explained in different ways already in antiquity.[2][4] Plutarch says it was first used of those who denounced people exporting figs from Attica against a ban.[4] Cook explained it as referring to an obscene, apotropaic gesture, like the Italian and French phrases “to make the fig” at someone, which Etymonline describes as sticking the thumb between two fingers.[2][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aristophanes uses it often, in the Acharnians for informers who denounce contraband, and in Wealth.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

At Athens, where there was no public prosecutor, any citizen could bring a charge, and the sykophantēs was the man who did so maliciously, a false accuser, blackmailer or informer.[5][6][2] Isocrates uses it, and it is common in the Attic orators.[5][6][2] Plato, Demosthenes and Menander also use it more widely for a trickster or a petty critic.[6][2] Hesychius glosses it as “false accuser, mischief-maker”.[7]

In the Septuagint it is an oppressor.[8] English took it as sycophant in the 1530s, first for an informer or slanderer.[3] Modern Greek συκοφάντης (sykofántis) is a slanderer.[9]

Timeline

  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for informers.[5][6]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Isocrates uses it for informers.[5]
  • 4th century BC – Demosthenes and Menander use it for a trickster.[6]
  • 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses it for an oppressor.[8]
  • 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch explains it from informing against fig exports.[4]
  • 1530s – English borrows sycophant.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A malicious accuser, false accuser, informer, slanderer.[6][5]
  2. A trickster, quibbler, petty critic.[6]
  3. An extortioner, oppressor.[8][1]

Word family

  • συκοφαντία (sūkophantíā)
  • συκοφαντικός (sūkophantikós)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
  8. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki