>
> You guys are making this way too complicated. The "-sy" or "-y" suffix in
> English has a diminutive function, as in "my little dolly" or "pussy cat" or
> "dandy." "My wittie bittie baby-waby." It's baby talk, which is reminescent
> of a certain kind of speech pattern commonly associated with male
> homosexuals. Thus, pansies are appropriate in a way that, say, dandelions or
> roses are not. "He's a real dandelion!" Nope, doesn't work.
>
> There is no deep significance here. ;)
>
I'm sorry, you're entitled to your opinion and everything, but that's simply not how language functions. That is an extremely primitive model of language which can only be applied to extremely primitive forms (like baby talk - in fact the structuralist Julia Kristeva put forward some interesting points on these primitive linguistic forms and their relationship to poetic language). And while I'm sure this dimunitive function may play a part in certain immediately chosen terms it cannot explain why this immediate term was chosen rather than that one - for example, why was "pansy" chosen rather than "daddy" or "paddy".