backslapper

1 8.8

A person who greets others loudly and kindly to seem friendly but often not sincere

noun
/ˈbækˌslæpər/

: lisonjero

He's not a backslapper, and he's not an arm-twister.

Examples

Do we really need one more unctuous backslapper in our nation's capital?

Blog text (26)
A peddler, a gladhander, a backslapper.

Double Indemnity (1944)
Keough, a man with an intense stare and easy smile, is a cheerful backslapper who loves to greet everyone warmly.
In our team meetings, we often see him as a backslapper, always praising others with enthusiastic compliments.
During the campaign, her bubbly personality made her known as a backslapper, as she greeted every voter with a heartfelt handshake.

Synonyms

flatterer

vsbackslapper

3 4.2

A person who gives fake praise to get someone's favor

shows hearty friendly goodwill rather than praising to gain advantage

Antonyms

enemy

∞ 1.0

A person who wants to harm or defeat you

critic

553 3.0

A person who often finds fault and speaks harshly about others

antagonist

19 6.3

A person who opposes another person, often in a story or argument

How Friendly

backslapper

1 8.8

friendly

763 1.0

welcomer

2 1.6

polite

336 1.0

Surface Forms

backslapper singular

backslappers plural

Morphology

backslapper = backslap (transparent) = back + slap + er

Agentive formation from the verb 'backslap' yields 'person who backslaps'; the figurative sense 'overly friendly' follows directly from the action.

Etymology

Backslapper comes from the simple words back and slap, where 'back' means 'the back of the body' and 'slap' means 'a quick, loud hit'. A helpful image is someone who greets others by slapping their back in a big, friendly way, and that's why a backslapper is a person who shows loud, hearty friendliness, often in a showy or slightly insincere way.