toady

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The Word of the Day for December 5 is:=20

toady   \TOH-dee\   noun
     : one who flatters in the hope of gaining favors : sycophant=20

Example sentence:
     The editorial unfairly characterizes the appointee as one of the ma=
yor's toadies, ignoring her long record of unselfish service to the comm=
unity.

Did you know?
          We can thank old-time toadeaters for today's word. In 17th-cen=
tury Europe, a toadeater was a showman's assistant whose job was to make=
 the boss look good. The toadeater would eat (or pretend to eat) what we=
re supposed to be poisonous toads. His or her charlatan master would the=
n "save" the toad-afflicted assistant by expelling the poison. It's litt=
le wonder that such assistants became symbolic of extreme subservience, =
and that "toadeater" became a word for any obsequious underling. By the =
early 1800s, it had been shortened and altered to "toady," our current t=
erm for a servile self-seeker.=20





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