"From sykon phainein, orig. used of denouncers of the attempted export of figs from Athens, acc. to Ister 35, Plu. Sol. 24, 2.523b; orig. of citizens entrusted with the collection of figs as part of the public revenues of Athens and the denouncing of tax-evaders, acc. to Philomnest.1; of denouncers of figs which had been stolen from the sacred fig-trees during a famine and had become cheap, the famine having passed, Sch. Ar. Pl. 31, cf. Fest. p.393 L.; these and modern explanations are mere guesses; the word first in Ar. but implied by sykopedilos." (Liddel-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon)