different between obsequious vs spaniel

English

Etymology

From Latin obsequi?sus (“complaisant, obsequious”) , from obsequium (“compliance”), from obsequor (“comply with, yield to”), from ob (“in the direction of, towards”) + sequor (“follow”) (see sequel).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?b?si?kwi.?s/

Adjective

obsequious (comparative more obsequious, superlative most obsequious)

1. (archaic) Obedient; compliant with someone else's orders or wishes.
2. Excessively eager and attentive to please or to obey instructions; fawning, subservient, servile.
   • 1927, Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, p. 20

     Translation falls especially short of this conceit which carries the whole flamboyance of the Spanish language. It was intended as an obsequious flattery of the Condesa, and was untrue.
3. (obsolete) Of or pertaining to obsequies, funereal.

Synonyms

• (obedient): See also Thesaurus:obedient
• (fawning or subservient): fawning, ingratiating, servile, slavish, sycophantic, truckling, smarmy, asskissing ; see also Thesaurus:sycophantic

Derived terms

• obsequiously
• obsequiousness

Related terms

Translations

References

English

Etymology

From Middle English spaynol, from Old French espaigneul (modern French épagneul), from Old Occitan espaignol, from Vulgar Latin *Hisp?niolus (“Spanish”), from Hisp?nia (“Spain”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?spænj?l/
• Rhymes: -ænj?l

Noun

spaniel (plural spaniels)

1. Any of various small to medium-sized breeds of gun dog having a broad muzzle, long, wavy fur and long ears that hang at the side of the head, bred for flushing and retrieving game.
2. A cringing, fawning person.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Dutch: spaniël

Translations

Verb

spaniel (third-person singular simple present spaniels, present participle spanielling or spanieling, simple past and past participle spanielled or spanieled)

1. To follow loyally or obsequiously, like a spaniel.
   • 1606: Shakespeare, William, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra

     Antony: Do we shake hands.—All come to this!—The hearts / That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave / Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets

   • J. Sedgewick (1840) Timon, but not of Athens, page 200: “Always spanielling at the heels of power, the mitred Dignitaries displayed, from first to last, the most rancorous hostility against her.”
   • David S. Bell (2000) Presidential Power in Fifth Republic France, ?ISBN, page 30: “Hence Duverger's famous question about de Gaulle's first spanielling Prime Minister makes political ('M. Debré, existe-t-il?'), but not constitutional sense.”
   • Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn (2003) The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, ?ISBN, page 65:

     The genre which differed from the world in order to advocate a better one - or the genre which spanielled at heel the sensationalist virtual reality world we will now arguably inhabit till the planet dies - had become by 2000, in triumpth or defeat or both, an institution for the telling of story.

Anagrams

• Espinal, Lapines, Nepalis, alpines, pin seal, pineals, pinseal, pleasin', splenia

Portuguese

Noun

spaniel m (plural spaniels)

1. A spaniel (any of several dog breeds bred to flush out game)

Spanish

Noun

spaniel m (plural spaniels or spaniel)

1. a spaniel

Swedish

Noun

spaniel c

1. A spaniel.

Anagrams

• apelsin, spela in