Trucklehead
/ˈtrʌkəlˌhɛd/noun
A servile or obsequious person who readily submits to others.
Did you know?The insult combines “truckle,” a small wheel or low truckle-bed, with “head,” evoking someone who figuratively lowers themselves before power.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*trek-
“To run or move; a proposed root connected with motion and wheel-related Greek formations.”
Ancient Greek
Greek
trokhos
“A wheel or anything running in a circular motion.”
Ancient Greek
Greek
trokhileia
“A pulley or system of wheels; the source of Latin trochlea.”
Medieval Latin
Latin
trochlea
“A pulley or wheel mechanism.”
13th–14th Century
Old French
trocle, trokel
“A small wheel, pulley, or caster.”
Middle English
English
truckle
“A small wheel or low wheeled bed; later, as a verb, to submit or behave obsequiously.”
19th Century–Modern English
English
trucklehead
“A person characterized by truckling—servile submission or excessive deference.”
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