Sycophant..Word for the day

I don't claim to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. So I try to pick up new words every now and then. My powers of retention are not what they used to be, but I do take the time to look up words that puzzle me. I found this one in an article about Joe Lieberman I'm sure I should have known this one, but here is an SAT word if I've ever read one:

Sycophant From the Free Dictionary Online

syc·o·phant (sk-fnt, sk-)
n.
A servile self-seeker who attempts to win favor by flattering influential people.

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[Latin scophanta, informer, slanderer, from Greek skophants, informer, from skon phainein, to show a fig (probably originally said of denouncers of theft or exportation of figs) : skon, fig + phainein, to show; see bh-1 in Indo-European roots.]

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syco·phantic (-fntk), syco·phanti·cal (-t-kl) adj.
syco·phanti·cal·ly adv.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.