Sycophant
The word sycophant has its origin in the legal system of Classical Athens. Most legal cases of the time were brought by private litigants as there was no police force and only a limited number of officially appointed public prosecutors. By the fifth century BCE this practice had given rise to abuse by "sycophants": litigants who brought unjustified prosecutions. The word retains the same meaning in Modern Greek and French. In modern English, the meaning of the word has shifted to that of an "insincere flatterer", used to refer to someone practicing sycophancy.
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