How did the flower Pansies come to be used as a reference for…well, a delicate limp wristed lisping guy? Did homosexuals of a bygone era use them as buttoniers (sp?)as a hidden message/meaning?
It was carnations, dear. I think “pansy” was used because of the association of flowers with femininity, also because pansies are related to violets which are related to “shrinking violets”… maybe?
have you ever noticed how pansies have a ‘face’? really, they seem to look at you ALL the time…I hate pansies.Creepy.
Specifically green carnations, right? As in the 1894 Robert Hichins novel of the same name, which mocked Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement?
Uke
Ironic. Pansys are hardy little things.One of the first things I transplant,they look real nice with a dusting of light snow.And they can take the afternoon sun right up against the west facing brick wall that makes every thing else wilt,even me. Kelli id on’t mind their lil faces. It’s the snap dragons and the jacks in the pulpits, with ther incessant right wing tyrades that scare me.( you can make snapdragons snap though,that’s cool) here’s all I found;
pansy
Origin: F. Pensee thought, pansy, fr. Penser to think, L. Pensare to
weigh, ponder. See Pensive.
<botany> A plant of the genus Viola (V. Tricolour) and its blossom,
originally purple and yellow. Cultivated varieties have very large
flowers of a great diversity of colours. Synonym: heart’s-ease, love-in-idleness, and many other quaint names.
Source: Websters Dictionary
and this;
Main Entry: 2pansy
Function: adjective
Date: 1929
usually disparaging : EFFEMINATE 1; also : HOMOSEXUAL
maybe a connection with panty waist? or ‘limp wristed’ the way they sorta hang over to look around?
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx
And the song, “We All Wore [sic] a Green Carnation” from Noel Coward’s operette [sic] Bitter Sweet, which also contains the earliest literary use of “gay” I have seen.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
You bet your sweet patoot, girlfriend.