sycophantia

Forms

sȳcophantia f (genitive sȳcophantiae); first declension^[1] It is also spelled sūcophantia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek συκοφαντία (sukophantía, “trickery”),^[4][5][6] a noun from συκοφάντης (sukophántēs, “slanderer”).^[1] That Greek word is a compound of σῦκον (sûkon, “fig”) and φαίνω (phaínō, “to show”).^[1][7] The agent noun came into Latin as sȳcophanta.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Plautus,^[6] who pairs it with tricks: sucophantia atque doli.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a word of Plautus' comedies, where it means a piece of humbug, a deceitful trick,^[4][2] used in the singular and, more often, in the plural.^[2][3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means craft or deception.^[8] Medieval glossaries in Britain explain it as a false accusation, a slander.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Pseudolus, the Miles gloriosus and other comedies.^[2][3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece of humbug, a deceitful trick; craft, cunning.^[4][2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) A false accusation, slander.^[9]

Related words

• sȳcophanta
• sȳcophantor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press