This means, quite
literally, “one who eats faeces”. French beef farmers, supplying meat for export, feed their cattle human faeces as a cheap food as it contains large amounts of partially digested cellulose and thereafter the cows exhibited coprophagic behaviour. Under certain conditions dogs also develop coprophagic behaviour, but this can be prevented, and cured, by feeding them tinned pineapple!
The use of the term has expanded to describe someone who, while not very clever or good at their job, is always smarming round the boss. The sort of behaviour exhibited is:
1. laughing excessively at
the smallest joke;
2.
apparently sharing the same interests and hobbies as the boss;
3. getting the boss tea or coffee without being asked;
4. sending the boss Christmas and Birthday cards, often with a gift attached;
Exactly the sort of behaviour that makes you think that if the boss crapped on their desk they’d eat it and swear it was ambrosia. These people are usually mediocre to poor performers and its only their
relationship with the boss that keeps them from being potted.
