kiss-her-in-the-buttery

noun
/ˈkɪs həɹ‿ɪn ðə ˈbʌt(ə)ɹi/US

Etymology

From kiss + her + in + the + buttery (“room for keeping food or beverages, storeroom”), from the way the flower’s petals are said to resemble the faces of two people kissing: see the 1891 and 2010 quotations. Compare other vernacular names for the wild pansy like come-and-cuddle-me, heart’s delight, Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me, kiss-me-at-the-gate, love-in-idleness, and tickle-my-fancy. (The word buttery is etymologically unrelated to butter, though the latter may have influenced the shift in meaning from “room for keeping alcoholic beverages” to “room for keeping food or beverages”.)

  1. derived from botāria
  2. derived from buteria
  3. derived from boterie
  4. inherited from boterie
  5. compounded as kiss-her-in-the-buttery — “kiss + her + in + the + buttery

Definitions

  1. Synonym of wild pansy (“Viola tricolor, a European wildflower with medicinal properties,…

    Synonym of wild pansy (“Viola tricolor, a European wildflower with medicinal properties, which was formerly believed to ease heartache”)

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for kiss-her-in-the-buttery. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA