Year: 1964
Champion: William Kerek (Akron, Ohio)
Definition: (n.) 1) A person who uses compliments or flattery to gain self-serving favor or advantage from another. 2) A person who seeks to gain through the powerful or influential.
Used in a Business page sentence: If that major financial firm hadn’t been full of sycophants, maybe the CEO wouldn’t have run it into the ground [opinion blog].