Sunday Word: Obsequious

[sallymn]

obsequious [uhb-see-kwee-uhs]

adjective:
characterized by or showing servile obedience and excessive eagerness to please; fawning; ingratiating

Examples:

In 2021, he started sprinkling workplace jokes into his posts, noting that videos about bosses and paid time off performed well. He also satirized retail jobs, showing a manager shift from scolding to obsequious in front of a customer. (Lora Kelley, 'Dilbert' Is Canceled but Cubicle Comedians Live On, The New York Times, March 2023)

Seabourn is a seven-star line and their sole aim is to pamper the guests in every possible way. The food was good, the waiters obsequious, the entertainment - high standard. (Gloria Deutsch, Vacation nightmare: What do you do when your luggage gets lost?, The Jerusalem Post, November 2022)

Remarkably, Francis Guinan has new fun playing the obsequious role of the producer, Saul, a role he first essayed in the original Steppenwolf staging, with the sad-eyed Jacqueline Williams playing the small part of Lee and Austin's dazed mother, following in the footsteps of Laurie Metcalf, no less. (Chris Jones, 'True West' is back at Steppenwolf, wrestling with the ghosts of Malkovich, Sinise and Shepard, The Chicago Tribune, July 2019)

Inasmuch as I clamour for more relevance to be given to Pidgin English since many Nigerians are more at home with 'Naija' than 'Nigeria', we should still not sing an obsequious dirge for our own indigenous languages; a balance of relevance should be given to the two at the expense of the English of the British or of other adoptation. (Dr Famuyiwa, We once had a language, Nigerian Tribune, December 2022)

He suggests that we should attach ourselves to wealthy women, and advises us to be obsequious to others who have a full purse. And so, after deceiving the soul, little by little he engulfs it in avaricious thoughts and then hands it over to the demon of self-esteem. (Evagrios the Solitary, 'On Disrimination')

Origin:

late 15c, 'prompt to serve, meekly compliant with the will or wishes of another, dutiful,' from Latin obsequiosus 'compliant, obedient,' from obsequium 'compliance, dutiful service,' from obsequi 'to accommodate oneself to the will of another,' from ob 'after' + sequi 'to follow' (from PIE root sekw- 'to follow'). Pejorative sense of 'fawning, sycophantic, unduly compliant' had emerged by 1590s. (Online Etymology Dictionary)