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.
“Malcolm’s
just given the boss a big birthday card and a present, so I told him he was a perfect coprophage. The twat looked at me as if I’d just paid him a
compliment.”
“You did.
Nothing about that wanker is perfect.”
