Sticks and Stones and Words Can Hurt

In anticipation of the upcoming presidential election cycle, prepare to hear some unsavory comments, even name-calling among candidates. Here’s a term you may not be familiar with and might hope you’re never called: lickspittle.

Lickspittle is a compound word, combining two Old English words—lick and spittle—neither particularly attractive activities. Spittle brings to mind the mixture of saliva and tobacco that cowboys are prone to hack up into (you guessed it) a spittoon. Both meanings are familiar: lick—to run the tongue over and spittle—a derivation of spit. But combine the two and you have one of many variations of a derogatory term for someone who flatters those in authority. In elementary school we knew them as a brownnosers or apple polishers. Some politicians might choose a less euphemistic term like: suckup, or sycophant, toady, lackey, or now that you know what it means—a lickspittle. The Free Dictionary calls a lickspittle a flattering or servile person. Servile—of or befitting a slave—captures the idea of someone bowing and scraping to the master. Subordinates who feel the need to flatter their superiors are in a form of bondage just as much as slaves are.

If, like me, you enjoy learning new words and how they become part of our vernacular, perhaps I’ve done you a service in introducing lickspittle to your vocabulary. On the other hand, Christian maturity demands that we also know how and when (or whether) to use a word. #editing #writers Click To Tweet As writers and editors concerned with communicating God’s truth with grace and love, lickspittle is probably not a word that should be rolling off our tongues. Words do have the power to hurt or heal, tear down or build up. Rather than identifying someone as a lickspittle, we ought to recognize the limits of their situation and lift them up instead of belittling them.