Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various plants of the genus Viola, especially V. tricolor or its hybrids, widely cultivated for their flowers with velvety petals of various colors.
  • noun A deep to strong violet.
  • noun Used as a disparaging term for a man or boy who is considered effeminate.
  • noun Used as a disparaging term for a gay man.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A favorite species of violet, Viola tricolor; the heart's-ease.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A plant of the genus Viola (Viola tricolor) and its blossom, originally purple and yellow. Cultivated varieties have very large flowers of a great diversity of colors. Called also heart's-ease, love-in-idleness, and many other quaint names.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Common name for a cultivated flowering plant, Viola tricolor hortensis, derived from heartsease; many garden varieties are hybrids.
  • noun A deep purple colour, like that of the pansy.
  • noun derogatory, colloquial, dated A male homosexual, especially one who is effeminate.
  • noun derogatory, colloquial A timid, weak man or boy; a wuss.
  • adjective Wimpy; spineless; feeble.
  • adjective Of a deep purple colour, like that of the pansy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun offensive term for an openly homosexual man
  • noun large-flowered garden plant derived chiefly from the wild pansy of Europe and having velvety petals of various colors
  • noun a timid man or boy considered childish or unassertive

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pancy, from Old French pensee, thought, remembrance, pansy, from feminine past participle of penser, to think; see pensive.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the French pensée ("thought"), as the plant resembles someone that is in deep thought, with a lowered head.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pansy.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Lovely translations: German Stiefmütterchen "little stepmother", Portuguese amor-perfeito "perfect love".

    March 2, 2009

  • This is also called "stepmother" in Slovene: ma�?eha.

    Edit: And in Russian, "Annie's little eyes": анютины глазки (anyútiny glázki)

    March 2, 2009

  • Beautiful. I've been meaning to do this list for a while.

    March 3, 2009

  • “The Alexander merited a place of honor on Esquire’s list of “the pansies,” the worst drinks of the Prohibition era. These included long-forgotten abominations like the Sweetheart, the Fluffy Ruffles, the Pom Pom and the Cream Fizz.”

    The New York Times, Bar? What Bar?, by William Grimes, June 2, 2009

    June 4, 2009

  • Tee hee! I love this word in all its slangy meanings... John, we were inspired by the same article today. See here.

    June 4, 2009