lackey

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French laquais, which is probably (via Old Occitan lacai?) from Spanish lacayo, itself perhaps from Italian lacchè and Greek λακές (lakés), from Turkish ulak. Another possibility is through French, from Catalan alacay, from Arabic اَلْقَاضِي (al-qāḍī, magistrate). See French laquais.

Pronunciation

Noun

lackey (plural lackeys)

  1. A footman, a liveried male servant.
    • 1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. , volume I, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., , →OCLC, page 198:
      My dearest father,—I say nothing of them,—but I dare to speak of myself,—I can never be a monk,—if that is your object—spurn me,—order your lacqueys to drag me from this carriage,—leave me a beggar in the streets to cry “fire and water,”—but do not make me a monk.
    • 1884, John Ruskin, “By the Rivers of Waters”, in “Our Fathers Have Told Us.”: Sketches of the History of Christendom for Boys and Girls who have been Held at Its Fonts, part I (The Bible of Amiens), Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, pages 30–31:
      St. Martin [of Tours] looks round, first, deliberately;—becomes aware of a tatterdemalion and thirsty-looking soul of a beggar at his chair side, who has managed to get his cup filled somehow, also—by a charitable lacquey. St. Martin turns his back on the Empress, and hobnobs with him!
  2. A fawning, servile follower.
    Synonyms: lickspittle; see also Thesaurus:loyal follower

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

lackey (third-person singular simple present lackeys, present participle lackeying, simple past and past participle lackeyed)

  1. (transitive) To attend, wait upon, serve obsequiously.
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To toady, play the flunky.

References

Anagrams