The term 'toady' refers to a person who flatters or tries to please someone to gain favor, and can also be used as a verb to describe this behavior. The word's origin traces back to an assistant of a quack doctor who ate a toad in medieval times and was cured by their medicine, extending the meaning to someone who would do anything to curry favor.
Der Begriff 'toady' bezeichnet eine Person, die schmeichelt oder versucht, jemandem zu gefallen, um Vorteile zu erlangen, und kann auch als Verb verwendet werden, um dieses Verhalten zu beschreiben. Die Herkunft des Wortes 'toady' lässt sich auf einen Assistenten eines Quacksalbers zurückführen, der im Mittelalter eine Kröte aß und von dessen Medizin geheilt wurde, was die Bedeutung von jemandem erweiterte, der alles tun würde, um sich beliebt zu machen.
| Back | toady /TOH-dee/ |
|---|---|
| Front | noun A person who flatters or tries to please someone to gain favor. verb intr. To behave as a toady. [From shortening of toad-eater. In times past, a quack employed an assistant who ate (or pretended to eat) a poisonous toad and was supposedly cured by the quack's medicine. From there the word extended to a person who would do anything to curry favor. Earliest documented use: 1827.] "Klein and the rest of Mission Control want a bunch of yes men and toadies." - Martin Shoemaker; Murder on the Aldrin Express; Analog Science Fiction & Fact (New York); Sep 2013. |
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