the.com/lackey
A yes-man with a job title that sounds like a uniform, not a role.
means A servile follower who carries out someone else's orders without question, trading independence for proximity to power.
from Traces back through French 'laquais' (a footman or servant), likely from Catalan 'alacaic' or Spanish 'lacayo,' possibly ultimately rooted in an Arabic term for a kind of soldier or rider-attendant. By the time it settled into English, 'lackey' had slid from a literal livery-wearing servant into an insult — someone who serves not out of duty but out of spinelessness.
- origin
- from lacquey, a liveried footman who ran errands
- key trait
- loyalty to power, not to principle
- modern form
- anyone who defends the boss to look smaller
- fatal flaw
- mistakes obedience for importance