Patsy Explained

Patsy
Gender:Unisex
Meaning:"Noble" (i.e. a patrician)
Region:north England, Scotland, & Ireland
Origin:Latin Patricius
Related Names:Martha, Matilda, Mattie, Patricia, Patrick, Patti, Patty

Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, or Patrice). Among Italian Americans, it is often used as a pet name for Pasquale.

In older usage, Patsy was also a nickname for Martha or Matilda, following a common nicknaming pattern of changing an M to a P (such as in Margaret → Meg/Meggy → Peg/Peggy; and Molly → Polly) and adding a feminine suffix.[1] [2]

President George Washington called his wife, Martha, "Patsy" in private correspondence. President Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter Martha was known by the nickname "Patsy", while his daughter Mary was called "Polly".

People with the name

Female

Male

Fictional characters

Victim of deception

The popularity of the name has waned with the rise of its, chiefly North American,[3] meaning as "dupe" or "scapegoat".[1] Fact, Fancy and Fable, published in 1889, notes that in a sketch performed in Boston "about twenty years ago" a character would repeatedly ask "Who did that?" and the answer was "Patsy Bolivar!"[4] It may have been popularized by the vaudevillian Billy B. Van, whose 1890s character, Patsy Bolivar, was more often than not an innocent victim of unscrupulous or nefarious characters.[5] Van's character became a broad vaudeville "type", imitated by many comedians, including Fred Allen, who later wrote, "Patsy Bolivar was a slang name applied to a bumpkin character; later, it was shortened to Patsy, and referred to any person who was the butt of a joke."[6]

Lee Harvey Oswald, after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, denied he was responsible for the murder, and stated: "No, they are taking me in because of the fact that I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy!"[7] [8]

Byron Smith, after killing Haile Kifer and her cousin, Nicholas Brady, also claimed he was a patsy.[9]

References

  1. News: edgarbook. Names: Patsy. https://web.archive.org/web/20091021141021/http://geocities.com/edgarbook/names/p/patsy.html. dead. 21 October 2009. 16 November 2007.
  2. Web site: Common Nicknames & Their Given Name Equivalents. About.com. 16 November 2007. 6 December 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071206011014/http://genealogy.about.com/library/bl_nicknames.htm. dead.
  3. News: Catherine Soanes. Angus Stevenson. 2005. Oxford Dictionary of English. 2nd revised. Patsy. Oxford University Press. Oxford, New York. 1291. 978-0-19-861057-1.
  4. Book: Balderdash & Piffle. Alex Games. Random House. 2010. 9781446415054. 275.
  5. Web site: Patsy. Online Etymology Dictionary. 7 August 2016.
  6. Book: Robert S. Bader. Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers On Stage. Northwestern University Press. 2016. 103.
  7. News: American Experience. Oswald's Ghost. PBS. 13 May 2018.
  8. News: A J.F.K. Assassination Glossary: Key Figures and Theories. 26 October 2017. The New York Times. 13 May 2018. 0362-4331.
  9. Web site: Transcripts. CNN. 15 July 2018.

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