flunkeyn.1
/ˈflʌŋki/, U.S. /ˈfləŋki/ 1.
a. A male servant in livery, esp. a footman, lackey; usually with implied contempt.
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society > authority > subjection > service > servant > personal or domestic servant > [noun] > liveried > footman or flunkey
footman1662
flunkey1786
yellow-plush1841
Jeames1846
Thomas1846
John Thomas1860
little man1885
1786 R. Burns Twa Dogs viii, in Poems 12 His flunkies answer at the bell.
1826 T. Hood Recipe for Civilization But play at dummy, like the monkeys, For fear mankind should make them flunkies.
1837 J. Sinclair Mem. Life & Wks. John Sinclair I. 48 Flunkie a footman; literally a sidesman or attendant at your flank.
1848 W. M. Thackeray Let. 1 Aug. [They] did not see by my appearance that I was not a flunkey.
1876 J. Saunders Lion in Path xx The flunkey went off to seek Jemima the maid.
b. Nautical slang. A ship's steward.
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1883 in W. C. Russell Sailors' Lang.
c. (See quots.) North American.
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1906 N.Y. Evening 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.
1956 J. S. Gowland Sikanaska Trail 177 ‘You're a flunkey,’ he said. ‘Report to the cook.’
1970 Islander (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 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.
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the mind > emotion > humility > servility > [noun] > servile person
clienta1393
snivelard1398
a dog for (also to) the bowc1405
fawnerc1440
snivellerc1450
slave1521
footstool1531
minion1560
footman1567
cringer1582
earthworm1583
yea-sayer1584
croucher1587
creeper1589
sneak-up1598
spaniel1598
sneak-cupa1616
servile1632
puppy dog1651
clientelary1655
lackey1692
groveling1708
prostite1721
prostitute1721
toad-eater1742
groveller1779
cringeling1798
creeping Jesusc1818
toady1826
truckler1827
crawler1847
flunkey1854
doormat1861
dog robber1863
heeler1875
slaveling1884
bootlicker1890
fetch-and-carry1905
poodle1907
yes-woman1927
ass-licker1939
ass-kisser1951
chamcha1966
fart-catcher1971
1854 W. M. Thackeray Newcomes (1855) II. v. 49 You young flunkeys of the aristocracy.
1856 F. L. Olmsted Journey Slave States 217 The miserable rabble of snobs and flunkies.
1884 Labouchere in Fortn. Rev. Feb. 209 The rage and indignation of every flunkey in the kingdom.
Compounds
attributive and in other combinations, as flunkey customer, flunkey species, flunkey work; flunkey-flanked adj.
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1826 J. Wilson Noctes Ambrosianae xxix, in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Nov. 789 Rolling along in flunky-flanked eckipages.
1843 T. Carlyle Past & Present i. v. 41 Certain of the flunkey species.
1858 C. Dickens Let. 6 Sept. (1995) VIII. 649 Such a schoolmaster..could not exist, unless he had Flunkey customers by the dozen.
1887 G. M. Fenn Master of Cerem. iv It was beggarly work—flunkey work, and it disgusted me.
Derivatives
ˈflunkey v. (intransitive) to act like a flunkey.Apparently an isolated use.
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1864 E. A. Murray Ella Norman I. 253 By flunkeying after that set of rabble.
ˈflunkeyage n. [after peerage etc.] nonce-word the class of flunkeys; a list of flunkeys.
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1848 (title) The Flunkey and the British Flunkeyage, a Companion to Burke's Peerage, by Birken~hare.
ˈflunkeyal adj. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a flunkey.Apparently an isolated use.
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1864 Times 27 June 11/1 If he is anxious to proclaim his flunkial subserviency, let him do so.
ˈflunkeyfied adj. imbued with flunkeyism.Apparently an isolated use.
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1848 W. M. Thackeray Bk. Snobs xxxv. 134 That..inimitable, flunkyfied pronunciation.
ˈflunkeyhood n. the fact or state of being a flunkey.Apparently an isolated use.
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1843 T. Carlyle Past & Present ii. vii. 102 All his flunkeyhood and horn-eyed dimness.
flunkeyiˈana n. the sayings or characteristics of flunkeys.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > service > servant > personal or domestic servant > [noun] > liveried > footman or flunkey > characteristics or occupation of
footmanship1727
footmanry1749
flunkeyiana1854
1854 Punch 26 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?’
1928 J. 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.
ˈflunkeyish adj.
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1823 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 14 524 There is something flunkyish..in the whole passage.
1879 T. P. O'Connor Disraeli 196 A very considerable amount of flunkeyish worship of the powerful.
flunkeyˈistic adj. Apparently an isolated use.
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1858 Illustr. Times 18 Dec. 407 A Titanic flunkey with the orthodox flunkeyistic calves.
ˈflunkeyite adj. characteristic of or resembling a flunkey.Apparently an isolated use.
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1858 Illustr. Times 24 July We do detest..the flunkeyite view of aristocracy.
ˈflunkeyize v. (transitive) to imbue with the spirit of a flunkey.Apparently an isolated use.
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1878 Goldw. Smith in Echo 19 Dec. 2 The attempt to flunkeyise the New World.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1897; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
flunkeyn.2
/ˈflʌŋki/, U.S. /ˈfləŋki/ U.S.
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.
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1841 Week in Wall St. 91 I'll help the bulls operate for a rise and draw in the flunkies.
1859 Yale Literary Mag. (Farmer) I..Saved him from the flunkey's doom.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1897; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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