- A person of slavish or unquestioning obedience; a lackey.
- One who does menial or trivial work; a drudge.
- A liveried manservant.
[Scots, perhaps from FLANKER, an attendant at one's flank.]
flunkyism flun'ky·ism n.WORD HISTORY The word flunky has come into Standard English from Scots, in which the word meant “liveried manservant, footman,” coming at least by the 19th century to be a term of contempt. The word is first recorded and defined in a work about Scots published in 1782. The definition states that a flunky is “literally a sidesman or attendant at your flank,” which gives support to the suggestion that flunky is a derivative and alteration of flanker, “one who stands at a person's flank.”
