flunkey

• flunkie, flunky

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ˈflʌŋki/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ʌŋki

flunkey (plural flunkeys or flunkies)

1. (derogatory) An underling; a liveried servant or a footman; servant, retainer – a person working in the service of another (especially in the household).
   • 1929, Baldwyn Dyke Acland, chapter 2, in Filibuster:

     “One marble hall, with staircase complete, one butler and three flunkeys to receive a retired sojer who dares to ring the bell. D'you know, old boy, I gave my bowler to the butler, whangee to one flunkey, gloves to another, and there was the fourth poor blighter looking like an orphan at a Mothers' Meeting. …"

   • 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 304:

     Dignified flunkies in the circular reception hall of the Ritz took my bag and briefcase and I came through the revolving door looking for Renata.

2. An unpleasant, snobby or cringeworthy person.

• flunkeydom
• flunkeyish
• flunkeyism

• flunker (possibly false cognate)
• lackey

• “flunkey”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “flunky”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.