flunkey

English

Alternative forms

• flunkie, flunky

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈflʌŋki/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋki

Noun

flunkey (plural flunkeys or flunkies)

1. (derogatory) An underling; a liveried servant or a footman; servant, retainer – a person working in the service of another (especially in the household).
   • 1929, Baldwyn Dyke Acland, chapter 2, in Filibuster:

     “One marble hall, with staircase complete, one butler and three flunkeys to receive a retired sojer who dares to ring the bell. D'you know, old boy, I gave my bowler to the butler, whangee to one flunkey, gloves to another, and there was the fourth poor blighter looking like an orphan at a Mothers' Meeting. …"

   • 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 304:

     Dignified flunkies in the circular reception hall of the Ritz took my bag and briefcase and I came through the revolving door looking for Renata.

2. An unpleasant, snobby or cringeworthy person.
3. (US, finance, slang, obsolete) (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) One easily deceived in buying stocks; an inexperienced and unwary jobber.

Derived terms

• flunkeydom
• flunkeyish
• flunkeyism

Translations

liveried servant or a footman

• Bulgarian: лакей (bg) m (lakej)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 男僕／男仆 (zh) (nánpú)

• Finnish: kätyri (fi), lakeija (fi), käskyläinen (fi)
• Hungarian: lakáj (hu)
• Irish: Seoinín m
• Maori: tonotono
• Plautdietsch: Schekjbenjel m
• Russian: лаке́й (ru) m (lakéj)
• Serbo-Croatian: lakej m
• Spanish: lacayo m

one who is obsequious or cringing

• Bulgarian: ласкател (bg) m (laskatel), подлизурко (bg) n (podlizurko)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 馬屁精／马屁精 (zh) (mǎpìjīng)

• Finnish: mielistelijä (fi)
• French: please add this translation if you can
• German: Lakai (de) m, Speichellecker (de) m
• Hungarian: talpnyaló (hu)
• Maori: tonotono
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: лаке́й (ru) m (lakéj), подхали́м (ru) m (podxalím), лизоблюд (ru) m (lizobljud), подли́за (ru) m or f (podlíza)
• Serbo-Croatian: poniznik m, poniznica f
• Thai: please add this translation if you can

See also

• flunker (possibly false cognate)
• lackey

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “flunkey”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

References

• “flunkey”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.