different between attendant vs sycophant

English

Alternative forms

• attendaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English attendant, attendaunt, from Old French attendant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t?nd?nt/

Noun

attendant (plural attendants)

1. One who attends; one who works with or watches over something.

2. A servant or valet.
3. (chiefly archaic) A visitor or caller.
4. That which accompanies or follows.
5. (law) One who owes a duty or service to another.

Translations

Adjective

attendant (comparative more attendant, superlative most attendant)

1. Going with; associated; concomitant.
2. (law) Depending on, or owing duty or service to.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cowell to this entry?)

Translations

See also

• part and parcel

French

Pronunciation

Verb

attendant

1. present participle of attendre

Derived terms

• en attendant
• en attendant que

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /at?ten.dant/, [ät??t??n?d?än?t?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /at?ten.dant/, [?t??t??n?d??n?t?]

Verb

attendant

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of attend?

English

Etymology

First attested in 1537. From Latin s?cophanta (“informer, trickster”), from Ancient Greek ?????????? (sukophánt?s), itself from ????? (sûkon, “fig”) + ????? (phaín?, “I show, demonstrate”). The gesture of "showing the fig" was a vulgar one, which was made by sticking the thumb between two fingers, a display which vaguely resembles a fig, which is itself symbolic of a ????? (sûkon), which also meant vulva. The story behind this etymology is that politicians in ancient Greece steered clear of displaying that vulgar gesture, but urged their followers sub rosa to taunt their opponents by using it.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?k?fænt/, /?s?k?f?nt/, /?sa?k?fænt/, /?sa?k?f?nt/

Noun

sycophant (plural sycophants)

1. One who uses obsequious compliments to gain self-serving favor or advantage from another; a servile flatterer.

   Synonyms: ass-kisser, brown noser, suck up, yes man; see also Thesaurus:sycophant

   • 1683, John Dryden, “The Art of Poetry”, Canto I:

     A sycophant will everything admire: / Each verse, each sentence, sets his soul on fire

2. One who seeks to gain through the powerful and influential.

   Synonyms: parasite, flunky, lackey; see also Thesaurus:sycophant

3. (obsolete) An informer; a talebearer.
   • 1580, Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, Book II:

     […] his mind had no eye to espy goodness; and therefore accusing sycophants, of all men, did best sort to his nature.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

sycophant (third-person singular simple present sycophants, present participle sycophanting, simple past and past participle sycophanted)

1. (transitive) To inform against; hence, to calumniate.
   • 1642, John Milton, Apology for Smectymnuus:

     As therefore he began in the title, so in the next leaf he makes it his first business to tamper with his reader by sycophanting and misnaming the work of his adversary.

2. (transitive) To play the sycophant toward; to flatter obsequiously.

Further reading

• sycophant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia