Sycophancy

Botticelli's illustration of Dante's Inferno shows insincere flatterers grovelling in excrement in the second pit of the eighth circle.[1]

Sycophancy[2] is flattery that is very obedient, or an indication of deference to another, to an excessive or servile degree. A user of sycophancy is referred to as a sycophant or, more commonly, a "yes-man".

Alternative phrases are often used such as:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Italian culture, 15, American Association of University Professors of Italian, 1997, p. 80
  2. ↑ Alphons Silbermann, translator Ladislaus Loeb (2000), Grovelling and other vices: the sociology of sycophancy, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-485-11544-4

Further reading


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/18/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.