toady

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The Word of the Day for December 5 is: 

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

Example sentence:
     The editorial unfairly characterizes the appointee as one of the mayor's 
toadies, ignoring her long record of unselfish service to the community.

Did you know?
          We can thank old-time toadeaters for today's word. In 17th-century 
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 were supposed to be 
poisonous toads. His or her charlatan master would then "save" the 
toad-afflicted assistant by expelling the poison. It's little 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 term for a servile self-seeker. 





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