>
>
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 2:44 PM, shag <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> 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".
>
I hope my approach wasn't seen as offensive..... it seems to put forward the connection between abstract thinking and supposed femininity.... Important connection, if you ask me!