| 释义 |
▪ I. flunkey, n.1|ˈflʌŋkɪ|
Also 8–9 flunky, Sc. flunkie, 9 flanky.
[orig. Scotch: see quots. Possibly a diminutive corruption of flanker.]
1. a. A male servant in livery, esp. a footman, lackey; usually with implied contempt.
1782Sir J. Sinclair Observ. Scot. Dial. in Life (1837) I. 48 Flunkie a footman; literally a sidesman or attendant at your flank. 1787Burns Twa Dogs 54 His flunkies answer at the bell. 1826Hood Recipe for Civilization, But play at dummy, like the monkeys, For fear mankind should make them flunkies. 1848Thackeray Let. 1 Aug. [They] did not see by my appearance that I was not a flunkey. 1876J. Saunders Lion in Path xx, The flunkey went off to seek Jemima the maid.
b. Naut. slang. A ship's steward.
1883in W. C. Russell Sailors' Lang.
c. (See quots.) N. Amer.
1906N.Y. Even. Post 12 Sept. 7 ‘Flunkeys’ in the Northwest do not wear uniforms; their work is to act as assistant cooks in mining and lumber camps. 1931‘D. Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route 205 Flunky, camp waiter. Always male. A woman is a hasher. 1956J. S. Gowland Sikanska Trail 177 ‘You're a flunkey,’ he said. ‘Report to the cook.’ 1970Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 17 May 6/1 The first pay slips the waitresses received listed them as ‘flunkies’. ‘We didn't like this,’ Mrs. Kusha says. ‘The men employed in the cookhouse were flunkies, but we had been hired as waitresses.’
2. Applied contemptuously to a person who behaves obsequiously to persons above him in rank or position; a ‘lackey’, toady, snob.
1855Thackeray Newcomes II. v. 49 You young flunkeys of the aristocracy. 1856Olmsted Slave States 217 The miserable rabble of snobs and flunkies. 1884Labouchere in Fortn. Rev. Feb. 209 The rage and indignation of every flunkey in the kingdom.
3. attrib. and Comb., as flunkey customer, flunkey species, flunkey work; flunkey-flanked adj.
1826J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 268 Rolling along in flunky-flanked eckipages. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. i. v. 41 Certain of the flunkey species. 1858Dickens Let. 6 Sept., Such a schoolmaster..could not exist, unless he had flunkey customers by the dozen. 1887Fenn Master Ceremonies iv, It was beggarly work—flunkey work, and it disgusted me.
Hence many nonce-wds.: ˈflunkey v. intr., to act like a flunkey. ˈflunkeyage [after peerage etc.], the class of flunkeys; a list of flunkeys. ˈflunkeyal a., of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a flunkey. ˈflunkeyfied ppl. a., imbued with flunkeyism. ˈflunkeyhood, the fact or state of being a flunkey. flunkeyiˈana, the sayings or characteristics of flunkeys. ˈflunkeyish a., flunkeyˈistic a., ˈflunkeyite a., characteristic of or resembling a flunkey. ˈflunkeyize v. trans., to imbue with the spirit of a flunkey.
1823Blackw. Mag. XIV. 524 There is something flunkyish..in the whole passage. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. vii. 102 All his flunkeyhood and horn-eyed dimness. 1848Thackeray Bk. Snobs xlii, That..inimitable, flunkefied pronunciation. 1848(title) The Flunkey and the British Flunkeyage, a Companion to Burke's Peerage, by Birken⁓hare. 1854Punch XXVI. 44 (heading), Flunkeyiana—a fact. Flunkey (out of place). ‘There's just one question I should like to ask your Ladyship—Ham I engaged for Work, or ham I engaged for Ornament?’ 1858Illustr. Times 24 July, We do detest..the flunkeyite view of aristocracy. 1858Ibid. 18 Dec. 407 A Titanic flunkey with the orthodox flunkeyistic calves. 1864E. A. Murray E. Norman I. 253 By flunkeying after that set of rabble. 1864Times 27 June 11/1 If he is anxious to proclaim his flunkial subserviency, let him do so. 1878Goldw. Smith in Echo 19 Dec. 2 The attempt to flunkeyise the New World. 1879T. P. O'Connor Disraeli 196 A very considerable amount of flunkeyish worship of the powerful. 1928J. Gore in E. Eden Semi-Attached Couple p. xi, Miss Eden..could..draw..the characters of servants with brilliance of touch and a knowledge of flunkeiana which Thackeray might have envied.
▪ II. flunkey, n.2 U.S.|ˈflʌŋkɪ|
[f. flunk v. or n. + -y.]
One who ‘flunks’ or ‘comes to grief’; in College slang, one who fails in an examination; in Stock Exchange language, an ignorant person who dabbles in financial speculation.
1841Week in Wall St. 91 I'll help the bulls operate for a rise and draw in the flunkies. 1859Yale Lit. Mag. (Farmer), I..Saved him from the flunkey's doom. |