>
> Who needs Deleuze when you have sales managers to mock endlessly? hmmm?
>
> every day I walk to work and I see pansies every where. I wondered:
> pansies are damn hardy -- considering it is 26 F out and they are happily
> there, without a hint of looking frost bitten. In the summer, it will
> occasionally reach 110 F, and they'll still be there.
>
> For months now, I've been wondering about the etymology of the word. How
> did a hardy flower like a pansy come to be a word hurled at men for being
> weak -- as if pansy meant a flower that would wilt in the heat or shrivel
> up in the cold
>
> So, finally looked it up. Didn't get much of an answer.
>
That's an interesting one alright. Here's my guess:
Pansy derives from Old French "pensee", to think. But its root is in the Latin word "penser", again: to think. However, this word seems to have been feminised when it was imported English. So we ended up with "pensive"... with all the feminine connotations therein... and "pansy"... a "thoughtful flower".