Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) an admirable person.

1894		Alma Record (MI) 22 June 5/3: She’s a daisy — or a pansy — whom all admire.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 63: A certain Preacher became wise to the fact that he was not making a Hit with his Congregation. The Parishioners did not seem inclined to seek him out after Services and tell him he was a Pansy.
1901		W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum XIV n.p.: Am I a turnip? [...] Why am I minus when it’s up to me To brace my Paris Pansy for glide?

2. (also panny, pans, pansy-wansy, panz) an effeminate and/or homosexual man; also attrib [redup.; abbr.].

1917		E.E. Cummings in Dupee & Stade Sel. Letters (1972) 2 July 27: About the tent in which Brown and I sleep his nomen is ‘Pansy’.
1919		Aussie (France) XI Feb. 10/1: He had not lived in Aussie long enough to become Australianised. He had a round, rosy dial and a soft-speaking voice. We called him ‘Pansy’ from the jump.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 63: For every Pansy in this Conservative Town there were 14 Rutabagas.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 17: Pour me a shoot—no, make it a man’s size—I ain’t no pansy.
1934		Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 6 Oct. 7/5: [headline] The pansy craze Is It Entertainment or Just Plain filth?
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 141: What the hell d’you think I am? [...] A bloody pansie?
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 58: They must have thrown a small light in his face and he passed out — just from panic. The pansy.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 76: Oh, you pretty-pretty bunch o’ soppy-stalked shy pansy-wansies.
a.1942		S.J. Baker papers MLMSS 165: Box 1, File 2: panny = pansy.
a.1942		W.B. Lawrence letter in S.J. Baker papers MLMSS 165: Box 4, Bundle 1, File 3: Pansy, Pans = homosexual.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 67: I left them together baiting the wretched pansies.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 45: The pansies in the State Department do not wear skirts over their striped pants.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 196: I’m about as popular as a pansy at a prostitutes picnic.
1956		P. Wildeblood Way of Life 35: She dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘He’s nothing but a dirty little pansy.’.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Syndicate (1998) 54: You expect me to believe that pansy was the brains in a half million dollar caper.
1960		A. Seymour One Day of the Year III i: ’E put on a voice like a bloody panz and ’e sez up high like, ‘Darl, ’ow ARE yer?’.
1963		‘Geoffrey Tolhurst’look at that suit, will you?’.
1971		N. Armfelt Catching Up 126: If he’s not a pansy, then he’s queer in some way or other.
1974–5		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 123: That little pansy must’ve really brainwashed mum.
1978		P. Hamill Dirty Laundry 145: Who’s the pansy?
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 36: Whipdick Woofer’s sucking around Fuzznuts like a pilot fish. Police pansies is what I think.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 75: A mile off you’d pick he’s a pansy.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 155: Only a Polack pansy could love this whammer.
2005		E. White My Lives 107: I was a pansy after all panting over a real man’s body.
2008		M. Hanif Case of Exploding Mangoes (2009) 21: These pansies sleep on nine-inch thick mattresses.
2015		(con. 1960s) M. Peppiatt Bacon in Your Blood 44: Can’t we come in here for a quiet drink without some little pansy photographing us?
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 216: ‘Don’t tell me. The two pansies had a baby’.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 87: You’re disgusting! An effing poof! A pansy!

3. (US black) a woman, one’s girlfriend.

1928

C. McKay Home to Harlem 30–1: Under the little colored lights, the dark dandies were loving up their pansies.

4. a contemptible cowardly person.

1933		C.G. Booth ‘Stag Party’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 113: Those pansies tailed Mayo and me [...] top Hawthorne Street.
1935		F. Wead Ceiling Zero Act III: Don’t worry about me. I’m no pansy.
1950		J. Morrison Port of Call 253: ‘By cripes, Jim, you’re a hard doer all right!’ ‘You’re no pansy, either, if it comes to it.’.
2004		T. Winton ‘Family’ Turning (2005) 186: You fuckin pansy! screamed Max. What’re you waiting for?
2010		K. Richards Life 50: Most of it was just taunts, ‘pansy’ and all that.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘What do you know about trouble, you fucken pansy’.