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Patsy

name
/ˈpætsi/

Etymology

The term dates back at least to the 1870s in the United States, close to the peak of Irish migration. The OED's recent revisions link Patsy with Pat and Paddy, the stereotype of the bogtrotter just off the boat. The American Heritage Dictionary and Online Etymology Dictionary quotes the OED it may derive from the Italian pazzo (“madman”), and south Italian dialect paccio (“fool”). Another possibility is the term derives from Patsy Bolivar, a character in an 1880s minstrel skit who was blamed whenever anything went wrong, in Broadway musical comedies, for example in The Errand Boy [1904] and Patsy in Politics [1907].

  1. derived from dialect paccio — “fool”
  2. derived from pazzo — “madman”
  3. derived from migration

Definitions

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Patricia.

  2. A diminutive of the male given name Patrick.

  3. A diminutive of the female given name Martha.

  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. A person who is taken advantage of, especially by being cheated or blamed for something.

      • And now it's quite obvious that instead of Mr Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney listening attentively to Mr Blair's sage advice, they've simply been using him as a patsy—a convenient fig-leaf.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for Patsy. 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