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Sycophant -
The Greek for sycophant is συκοφάντης (sykophántēs).
It suggests someone who brings all kinds of charges
and proves none, according to a client of Demosthenes.
A client of Lysias adds the perspective of blackmail:
"It is their practice to bring charges even against those
who have done no wrong. For from these they would
gain most profit." [3] In this context, the word entails
false accusation, malicious prosecution, and abuse
of legal process for mischievous or fraudulent purposes.
Sycophant - [sik-uh-fuhnt, -fant, sahy-kuh-] Origin syc·o·phant a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.
Sycophant -
syc·o·phant (sk-fnt, sk-)
n.
A servile self-seeker who attempts to win favor by flattering influential people
maybe like David Dorn.
Do I get brownie points for this one?
Today's question:
Where does the term “brownie points” come from and how were they first earned?
First of all, brownie points are a sort of credit you get for doing a great job or doing someone a favor and so on and so forth.
It dates back to the early 1950s.
Now I always assumed the phrase came from the Brownies – junior Girl Scouts doing stuff to earn various badges and maybe that's so.
However, I was surprised to find out there are a few other possible sources for the phrase.
One comes from a guy named George Brown, a railroad superintendent in New York who in 1881 wrote up a manual of merits and demerits for employees of The Fall Brook Railway Company.
It was widely adapted by several other railroads and the rewards for doing a good job were known as brownie points.
Another possible explanation is that the Curtis Publishing Company, which published, among other things, the “Saturday Evening Post” and “Ladies Home Journal,” used to use kids to distribute their magazines and hustle up new subscriptions.
They got a small commission, but they also received chits they could use to buy stuff from the company's catalog.
Because of their colors the chits came to be known and greenies and brownies. There were five greenies in a brownie. So you earned brownie points by selling a lot of subscriptions.
The Oxford English Dictionary says it is a sort of scatological term used in the military to describe sycophants –brownnosers.
You know, I've worked for newspapers for a long time and I believe this is the first time I ever used the word “sycophant.” I think I'll reward myself with a nap.
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