Advertisement
flanker (n.)
Related entries & more 1550s, from flank (n.).
Advertisement
flunky (n.)
Related entries & more also flunkey, 1782, Scottish dialect, "footman, liveried servant," of uncertain origin, perhaps a diminutive variant of flanker (in reference to servants running alongside coaches; compare footman). Sense of "flatterer, toady" first recorded 1855. "Recent in literature, but prob. much older in colloquial speech" [Century Dictionary].