• lickspittle •
Printable Version Pronunciation: lik-spit-êl • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A fawning toady, a sycophant, bootlick, yes-man.
Notes: In case you are already bored with our Good Word for January 8, toady, here is a synonym that takes a little longer to pronounce and hence is more of an attention-grabber. For those of you whose imaginations and stomachs find this word difficult, toady is always there, but if you like to be noticed, today's word will work better for you.
In Play: Lickspittles are found high and low: "The corporate lickspittles in Washington often introduce bills written by lobbyists in Congress." They are also at home, in the workplace, and all around the neighborhood: "The president's idea of putting the electric fork into production ASAP was supported by all the toadies and lickspittles in upper management, so we are going to do it."
Word History: Today's Good if somewhat repulsive Word is a combination of the verb lick and the noun spittle, the noun from the verb spit. The word refers to someone who so fawns over you they are willing to lick up your spit. (Sorry, but it's true.) Both are veteran English words, unborrowed and untainted by outside influence. Lick is a variant of a Proto-Indo-European stem that turns up in most European languages in the expected local form: Latin lingere, Greek leikhein, and Russian lizat'. Lick may be of imitative origin (onomatopoetic): Hebrew likek and Arabic laqqa "licked" are unrelated to the English word and they are assumed to be onomatopoetic.
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