Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SYC'O-PHANT, n. [Gr. συκοφαντη; συκος, a fig, and φαινω, to discover.]

Originally, an informer against those who stole figs, or exported them contrary to law, &c. Hence in time it came to signify a talebearer or informer, in general; hence, a parasite; a mean flatterer; especially a flatterer of princes and great men; hence, a deceiver; an impostor. Its most general use is in the sense of an obsequious flatterer or parasite. – Encyc. Potter's Antiq.