different between pander vs sycophant

English

Alternative forms

• pandar

Etymology

From Middle English pandare, from Chaucer’s character Pandare (in Troilus and Criseyde) (see also Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida), from Italian Pandaro (found in Boccaccio), from Latin Pandarus (found in Greek mythology), from Ancient Greek ???????? (Pándaros).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?pænd?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?pænd?/
• (non-rhotic accents) Homophone: panda

Noun

pander (plural panders)

1. A person who furthers the illicit love-affairs of others; a pimp or procurer.

   Synonyms: panderer; see also Thesaurus:pimp

   • 1992, Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright, translating Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way, Folio Society 2005, p. 190:

     It was not only the brilliant phalanx of virtuous dowagers, generals and academicians with whom he was most intimately associated that Swann so cynically compelled to serve him as panders.

2. An offer of illicit sex with a third party.
3. An illicit or illegal offer, usually to tempt.
4. (by extension) One who ministers to the evil designs and passions of another.
   • 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord

     Those wicked panders to avarice and ambition.

Derived terms

• panderly
• pandersome

Translations

Verb

pander (third-person singular simple present panders, present participle pandering, simple past and past participle pandered)

1. (intransitive) To tempt with, to appeal or cater to (improper motivations, etc.); to assist in gratification.
2. (intransitive) To offer illicit sex with a third party; to pimp.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To act as a pander for (somebody).

Synonyms

• (to pimp): prostitute, hustle, whore out; see also Thesaurus:pimp out

Derived terms

• panderer

See also

• demagogism

Translations

Anagrams

• repand

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pan?/, [?p?an?]

Noun

pander c

1. indefinite plural of pande

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?pan.der/, [?pän?d??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?pan.der/, [?p?n?d??r]

Verb

pander

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of pand?

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