Zelig
An ordinary person who can change their appearance or behavior to suit their…An ordinary person who can change their appearance or behavior to suit their surroundings, especially one who is unexpectedly associated with important events or people.
Meaning
2 sensesAn ordinary person who can change their appearance or behavior to suit their surroundings, especially one who is unexpectedly associated with important events or people.
An unimportant person who appears at multiple important events.
Translations
1 languagesOrigin
From the surname of the character Leonard Zelig from the 1983 film Zelig who meets many faFrom the surname of the character Leonard Zelig from the 1983 film Zelig who meets many famous people in the 1920s and 1930s and, apparently out of his desire to fit in and be liked, unwittingly takes on the characteristics of the strong personalities around him.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.