SYCOPHANT

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) It was forbidden by the laws of Athens at one period to export figs. The public informers who gave notice of delinquencies against this fiscal law were extremely unpopular, and hence the word came into use to signify an informer or false accuser generally; in which sense it is constantly used by Aris toph anes and the orators. In modern languages it has acquired the sense of a mean flatterer. [s. 1222]