Servants or subordinates who obey someone without question, often used as an insult to describe people who follow orders without thinking.
From French 'laquais,' possibly from Turkish 'ulak' (messenger). The term entered English in the 1600s, originally meaning a footman or personal servant.
Lackey went from a neutral job title to an insult—it's a perfect example of how language reveals class anxiety, since only the wealthy had servants and calling someone a lackey meant calling them powerless.
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