lackey

 
Pronunciation: /ˈlaki/

noun (plural lackeys)

  • 1a servant, especially a liveried footman or manservant: lackeys were waiting to help them from the carriage
  • derogatory a person who is obsequiously willing to obey or serve another person: he denied that he was the lackey of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury
  • 2 (also lackey moth) a brownish European moth of woods and hedgerows, the caterpillars of which live communally in a silken tent on the food tree.
    [ mid 19th century: from the resemblance of the coloured stripes of its caterpillars to a footman's livery]
    • Malacosoma neustria, family Lasiocampidae

verb (lackeys, lackeying, lackeyed)

[with object] archaic
  • behave servilely towards; wait on as a lackey: he had lackeyed and flattered Walpole

Origin:

early 16th century: from French laquais, perhaps from Catalan alacay, from Arabic al-qā'id 'the chief'