sycophanta

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [syː.kɔˈpʰan.ta]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [si.koˈfan.ta]^[1]

Forms

sȳcophanta m (genitive sȳcophantae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek συκοφάντης (sukophántēs, “false accuser, slanderer”).^[2][3][1] The Greek word means literally “one who shows the fig”, from σῦκον (sûkon, “fig”) and φαίνω (phaínō, “to show”).^[1][4] Lewis and Short and Georges repeat the old explanation that it first meant an informer against those exporting figs from Attica against the law;^[5][6] Etymonline instead connects it with an obscene gesture called “showing the fig”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[7] who uses it of a smooth trickster: “this sycophant is too clever, watch how he coaxes the woman”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Latin comedy it meant a swindler or impostor, someone who plays on others' credulity, and also a cunning flatterer or parasite.^[2][5][6] Festus explains its original Athenian sense of a person who brings vexatious prosecutions, and Apuleius uses it for a slanderer.^[2] Lewis and Short note that it is found before and after the classical period but not in classical prose.^[5]

Ecclesiastical Latin used it for a flatterer.^[8] English borrowed it in the 1530s, first as “informer, slanderer”, a sense later replaced by “servile flatterer”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for tricksters and impostors.^[2][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it in the same sense.^[2][7]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it for a slanderer.^[2][7]
• 1530s – English borrows it as English sycophant.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A swindler, impostor, trickster.^[2][5]
2. A cunning flatterer, parasite, sycophant.^[5][8]
3. (at Athens) A vexatious accuser; a slanderer.^[2]

Word family

• sȳcophantor

Related words

• sȳcophantia
• sȳcophantiōsē
• English sycophant

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson