lickspittle

lickspittle

See also: lick-spittle

English

WOTD – 10 October 2009

Alternative forms

• lick-spittle

Etymology

A compounding: lick (“pass one’s tongue over”) + spittle (“saliva”); the verb may derive by back-formation from the nominal derivation lickspittling (see below).[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: lĭkʹspĭtl, lĭkʹspĭtəl, IPA^(key): /ˈlɪkspɪtl/,[1][2] /ˈlɪkspɪtəl/,[1][2]

Noun

lickspittle (plural lickspittles)

1. A fawning toady; a base sycophant.[1]
   • 1857, Charlotte Brontë, The Professor, ch. 5:

     "I've found you out and know you thoroughly, you mean, whining lickspittle!"

   • 1920, Sherwood Anderson, Poor White, ch. 21:

     "You're a suck, a suck and a lickspittle, that's what you are," said the pale man, his voice trembling with passion.

   • 2013 May 23, "Note to politicians: Stop blaming the media for your problems (Editorial)," Globe and Mail (Canada) (retrieved 23 May 2013):

     In Ottawa, Senator Marjory LeBreton claimed in a speech on Wednesday that allegations of spending abuses by her colleagues were “hyped-up media stories” that were inevitable in a “town populated by Liberal elites and their media lickspittles.”

2. (by extension) The practice of giving empty flattery for personal gain.

Synonyms

• (fawning toady): brown noser, flatterer, sycophant, toady

Derived terms

• lickspittling (verbal noun)
• lickspittlery

Translations

fawning toady

German: Speichellecker (de) m Polish: lizus (pl) m, przydupas (pl) m, wazeliniarz m, dupowłaz m

Quechua: llaqwaq Russian: льстец (ru) m (lʹstec), подхали́м (ru) m (podxalím); лизоблю́д (ru) m (lizobljúd)

practice of giving empty flattery

Dutch: slijmerd (nl),pluimstrijker

Russian: лизоблю́дство (ru) n (lizobljúdstvo), подхали́мство (ru) n (podxalímstvo)

Verb

lickspittle (third-person singular simple present lickspittles, present participle lickspittling, simple past and past participle lickspittled)

1. (transitive and intransitive) To play the toady; take the role of a lickspittle to please (someone).[1]
   • 1886, Aylmer and Louise Maude (translators), Leo Tolstoy (author), The Light Shines in Darkness, act 1:

     "[Y]ou take his side, and that is wrong! . . . If some young school teacher, or some young lad, lickspittles to him, it's bad enough."

Translations

a fawning toady

Danish: spytslikker c Finnish: nuoleskelija (fi) French: lèche-botte (fr), lèche-cul (fr) Macedonian: подлизурко m (podlízurko)

Norwegian: spyttslikker (no) m Polish: podlizywać się (pl) impf, podlizać się pf, włazić w dupę (pl) impf Russian: льстить (ru) (lʹstitʹ), подхалимничать (ru) (podxalimničatʹ), (informal, colloquial) подли́зываться (ru) (podlízyvatʹsja)

References

1. “ˈlick-spittle” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
2. “lick, v.” and “spittle, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)