Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Rice, especially in the husk, whether gathered or still in the field.
- n. A specially irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An Irishman.
- n. [lowercase] A sailors' name for the lesser sheath bill of Kerguelen Island, Chionis minor. See
sheathbill and Chionis. - n. [l. c] The ruddy duck, Erismatura rubida. Also paddywhack.
- n. [lowercase] Same as paddywhack, 3.
- Mean; poor; contemptible; low in manners or character.
- n. Rice in the husk, whether in the field or gathered.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Low; mean; boorish; vagabond.
- n. Obsolescent A jocose or contemptuous name for an Irishman; -- usually considered offensive.
- n. (Bot.) Unhusked rice; -- commonly so called in the East Indies.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown
- n. (ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Irish descent
- n. rice in the husk either gathered or still in the field
Etymologies
- From Malay padi ("paddy plant"), from Proto-Malayic *padi, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *pajay, from Proto-Austronesian *pajay. (Wiktionary)
- Malay padi. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A rice paddy is drained and allowed to dry to just the right consistency.”
“Then we called the paddy wagon, and I gave the order to arrest them.”
“A group of farmers have created 'murals' by planting rice in different colors in Japanese paddy fields”
“All the summer-sown crops in north India will be down by 30% except paddy, which is yet to be sown in a big way," Krishan Bir Chaudhury, president of Bharatiya Krishak Samaj (Indian Farmer's Society) said.”
The Wall Street Journal: Faltering July Rains Scorch India's Summer Crop Hopes
“Yes, in those days, riding in the "Black Maria," as they used to call the paddy wagon, meant more than it does today.”
““Something that will convince me not to vanquish your butts or call the paddy wagon,” Paige said.”
“Rice is conventionally grown under conditions of inundation, when it is referred to as paddy (the term is also used for the bunded plot in which rice is grown) or as wet-land or low-land rice.”
“Of all the common agricultural wastes, rice husks (also called paddy husks) yield the largest quantity of ash - around 20 % by weight - which also has the highest silica content - around 93 % by weight.”
“A simple but rude mill is in use in Siam, and many parts of India, for hulling paddy, which is similar to those used 4,000 years ago.”
“When the paddy, that is, the rice with the husks still on it, has been dried and piled in a heap for threshing, all the friends of the household are invited to the threshing-floor, and food and drink are brought out.”
Chapter 46. The Corn-Mother in Many Lands. § 2. The Rice-mother in the East Indies
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘paddy’.
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Open List: Rice Is Nice!
Everything rice. There are many styles of sushi listed here. For convention's sake, I list them in lower case letters and without a hyphen (inarizushi rather than Inari-zushi).
Rice v...Carnaroli, ricer, wild rice, risotto, sushi, arborio, basmati, superfino, amylose, beri-beri, Carolina rice, Indo-Chinese rice and 155 more...
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•Open List: Songboys
Inspired by gangerh's extremely addictive list songbirds, this is the same type list, but for male names. Same rules apply:
Names of boys in song titles. Not in the lyrics, just in the title...jack, jesse, jakey, john, arthur, nick, donald, bill, billy, gideon, riley, charlie and 95 more...
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EN - xenophobic terms
Alle Menschen werden Brüder - sooner or later? Derogatory terms for anybody different.
abe, anchor baby, ann, ape, apple, asian nigger, aunt jemima , aunt jane, aunt mary, aunt sally, banana, beaner and 315 more...
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MANY A WORD!
This is just a list, right, that I'm gonna, like, fill with words, that, like, are every word that I can, like, think of with, ahhmm, my brain.
and, able, art, ass, algebra, amp, ankle, booze, bong, aura, bling, bright and 134 more...
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Nigerian English
This list was inspired by this article. Any Nigerians out there care to add to it?
chop house, felicitate, jubilate, cutlass, waterloo, tout, urchin, gripe water, vulcanizer, miscreant, can of worms, sorry-o and 121 more...
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Invisible Man
Words culled from Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.
sweetback, inspirit, plasticine, atoss, hyperreceptivity, laugher-at-wounds, necrophily, monopolate, aliveness, thinker-tinker, weltschmerz, klieg and 113 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
my list
executive, oxide, slang, paddy, calamity, pledge, carved, deliberate, vastly, tolerate, simultaneous, ornamental and 114 more...
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dialect and oikolect
from Birmingham, the Black Country, and a few generations back on one side, Lancashire. Also
- deliberate mis-sayings and
- things which aren't localised, but relatively infrequent in...scraige, lummock, round the wrekin, mithering, daft ha'p'orth, caggy-handed, fizzog, mardy, kaylied, hotch up, cadge, yampy and 33 more...
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the opposite of sympathy
words I dislike, rationally or not.
money, paddy, goo, shout, forte, nihilistic, emo, indie, blubber, pathetic, proem, blithe and 17 more...
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etymological curiosities
Convergences. ('Convergent homonyms' is one candidate for the term; I'm not yet sure whether I like it best, even after a long time collecting.)
None of these are polysemous (identica...brook, mere, rum, juke, drill, duck, tick, hone, low, bat, may, bear and 79 more...
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BBC Upgrades Flap To Row
The Onion (November 9, 2007)
flap, row, parliament, conservative, lord, speaker, fortnight, old, handbag, proper, barney, eppy and 16 more...
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Interesting ones
As a second language, thank you.
ergophobia, quoz, pope, wobble, logos, vertebrate, masterpiece, mu, billabong, mojo, merkin, milieu and 76 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for paddy.
bilby Nigerian English - friend. Jun 22, 2009
yarb I guess the sense of tantrum is related to (maybe from) paddywagon and padded cell. Aug 29, 2008
sarra A tantrum. cf. paddywhack. Even the OED isn't sure quite why the word is used this way, though. Feb 20, 2008
reesetee Paddy for days! I'm suprised this one didn't come up sooner. :-) Feb 10, 2008
chained_bear "Paddy O’Rafferty," "Paddy Doyle’s Boots," "Paddy O’Toole," and "Paddy on a Handcar" are all folk tunes.
"A Pistol for Paddy Garcia" and "Poor Paddy" are by the Pogues, but the latter is very similar to a traditional song called "Paddy on the Railway." Feb 10, 2008