You queried:

" sycophant "

Results retrieved for:

"sycophant";

\ ˈsi-kə-fənt \

Your query is not considered offensive by any official sources.

( some results may take a moment to update )

(1) - Merriam-Webster Dictionary

+ ♪ (1)

(1) - Noun entries...

+ ♪ (1)

(1) - { sycophant } : ( ✔ )Innoffensive?

+ ♪

[Noun] | "sy*co*phant" | \ ˈsi-kə-fənt \

1: a servile self-seeking flatterer

Origin: 1575 ;

Borrowed from Latin sȳcophanta, borrowed from Greek sȳkophántēs, literally, "one who shows the fig," from sŷkon "fig" (perhaps in reference to an apotropaic gesture made by inserting the thumb between the index and second fingers) + -phantēs, agentive derivative of phaínein "to reveal, show, make known"; perhaps from the use of such a gesture in denouncing a culprit {mat|fig:1|}, {mat|fantasy:1|};

* Note : The origin of Greek sȳkophántēs, applied in ancient Athens to private individuals who brought prosecutions in which they had no personal stake, was already under debate by ancient writers. The "apotropaic gesture" hypothesis given here was presented early on by Arthur Bernard Cook ("CΥΚΟΦΑΝΤΗC," The Classical Review, vol. 21, issue 5 [August, 1907], pp. 133-36); Cook also usefully summarizes ancient speculation (as the idea that the original sȳkophántēs denounced those who illegally exported figs from Attica). The objection has been made that the basic notion "one who makes the fig gesture" does not account for the extremely negative connotations of the word ("slanderer, calumniator, etc."), but other explanations (as, for example, that a sȳkophántēs revealed figs hidden in a malefactor's clothing, or initiated a prosecution for something of as little value as a fig) see:m even less likely. A more nuanced, if not entirely convincing account, based on presumed fig metaphors in Athenian culture, is in Danielle Allen, The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens (Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 156 passim. — The application of sycophant to a flatterer, which departs entirely from the Greek meaning, is peculiar to the history of the word in English. In the sixteenth century English writers see:m to have applied sycophant in particular to slanderous accusers who had found their way into the retinue of the powerful. Once the word became a generally used label for ill-willed people close to those in power, it presumably became associated with obsequious flattery, a stereotypical negative quality of such people.;

(2) - Merriam-Webster Thesaurus

(1) - Adjective entries...

(1) - { sycophant } : ( ✔ )Innoffensive?

[Adjective] | "sycophant"

1: as in fawning, sycophantic;

(1) - Noun entries...

(1) - { sycophant } : ( ✔ )Innoffensive?

[Noun] | "sycophant"

1: a person who flatters another in order to get ahead;

* e.g., " ... be careful not to mistake sycophants for true friends "

Antonyms :
(N/A)

(10) - Urban Dictionary

... may be offensive!

# 1 - { sycophant:195246 }