Bootlicker

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈbuːtlɪkə/

Definitions

1. A person who behaves obsequiously toward someone in authority or power in hopes of gaining favor or advancement
2. someone who acts with excessive deference and flattery toward those of higher status to secure personal benefit
3. a person who demonstrates servile compliance and ingratiation toward superiors for the sake of gaining advantage

Etymology: A bootlicker is someone who fawns over people in authority, and the image behind the word is startlingly literal. "Boot" here is the ordinary footwear, and "licker" is simply one who licks, so the compound pictures a servile person going so far as to lick a superior's boots. The metaphor is a bit of old-fashioned cruelty turned into a figure of speech: the humiliation is total, and the flatterer's tongue does the work that dignity would forbid. The construction itself is plain, a compound of two ordinary English words with nothing borrowed or disguised. "Boot" comes from the same everyday stock as the footwear it names, and "-licker" is an agent formed from the verb "lick" in the same way "wiper" or "sticker" is formed. Nothing about its parts needed reinterpreting over time, so the word has kept the concrete picture it started with.

Synonyms: sycophant, toady, flatterer

Antonyms: critic, opponent, defender