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The word for today is…
toady (noun) –
: one who flatters in the hope of gaining favors : sycophant
Source : Merriam -Webster
Etymology : In 17th-century Europe, a toadeater was a showman’s assistant whose job was to make the boss look good. The toadeater would eat (or pretend to eat) what were supposed to be poisonous toads. His or her charlatan master would then “save” the toad-afflicted assistant by expelling the poison. It’s little wonder that such assistants became symbolic of extreme subservience, and that toadeater became a word for any obsequious underling. By the early 1800s, it had been shortened and altered to toady, our current term for a servile self-seeker.
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