συκοφαντέω
sykophanteō
Verb · From a compound of σῦκον (G4810) and a derivative of φαίνω (G5316)
From a compound of G4810 and a derivative of G5316; to be a fig-informer (reporter of the law forbidding the exportation of figs from Greece), "sycophant", i.e. (genitive and by extension) to defraud (exact unlawfully, extort):—accuse falsely, take by false accusation.
Outline
- to accuse wrongfully, to calumniate, to attack by malicious devices
- to exact money wrongfully
- to extort from, defraud
- "From sykon phainein, orig. used of denouncers of the attempted export of figs from Athens, acc. to Ister 35, Plu. Sol. 24, 2.523b; orig. of citizens entrusted with the collection of figs as part of the public revenues of Athens and the denouncing of tax-evaders, acc. to Philomnest.1; of denouncers of figs which had been stolen from the sacred fig-trees during a famine and had become cheap, the famine having passed, Sch. Ar. Pl. 31, cf. Fest. p.393 L.; these and modern explanations are mere guesses; the word first in Ar. but implied by sykopedilos." (Liddel-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon)