Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. effeminate, homosexual.

[1897		O. Wister Lin McLean 3: ‘Bugged up to kill!’ exclaimed one, perceiving Lin’s careful dress [...] ‘He has spared that pansy-blossom mustache,’ said a fourth. [...] ‘Why you’ll soon be talking yourself into a regular man,’ said the other].
1929		(con. 1917–18) C. MacArthur War Bugs 233: This new set of gold bricks pushed their pansy pans over the muddy horizon.
1929		J. Devanny Riven 112: ‘Thanks. Don’t bother.’ The voice was warm. [...] A rich telephone voice. To an artist a pansy voice; a purple pansy.
1934		Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 6 Oct. 7/5: [headline] the pansy craze. / Is It Entertainment or Just Plain filth?
1936		A. Seale in N.Y. Age 1 Aug. 7/3: [of a lesbian] The Ubangi Club featuring Gladys Bentley and her ‘pansie’ entertainment.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 172: If any dopers comes along my money’s on little pansy-face ’ere.
1937		Jennings & Madge May the Twelfth: Mass-Observation Day-Surveys 4:64: Another man standing at bar by himself [...] friends come in and greet him; one says: ‘Tcht Hello Lily’ in a pansy, nancy-boy way referring to a lily of the valley button-hole he has.
1940		Truth (Sydney) 18 Aug. 21/2: Where do they come from? Those Nancy Pansy voices of the announcers of the British Broadcastiung Corporation.
1942		P. Larkin letter 12 Aug. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 41: Thought I’d give you a taste of this new pansy notepaper I had for my birthday.
1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 188: The pansy decorators, the Lesbian dress designers.
1951		A. Garve Murder in Moscow (1994) 48: Mrs. Clarke [...] was waited upon by a rather pansy young man.
1958		R. Chandler Playback 159: A pansy hairstylist fluttering around a screen star.
1962		H.S. Thompson letter 28 Aug. in Proud Highway (1997) 350: Your hideous pansy envelope.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 80: You didn’t sound much like an insurance nob to me [...] when you stood up to that pansy lorry driver.
1976		M. Braly False Starts 223: You know how close you came to getting your pansy ass slashed?
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 22: There were those [...] who considered Fenmore to be a bit of a pansy monicker for any male.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 229: If my husband was alive he’d deal with that little pansy decorator.
1989		Beano Comic Library No. 182 40: Coo! What a pansy pong!
1999		Guardian Weekend 5 June 34: They thought it was a pansy activity.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 31: Huh, Pansy-boy? Am I squeezin’ femme-lard?
2008		M. Hanif Case of Exploding Mangoes (2009) 285: The whole bloody army is turning into pansy intellectuals.
2012		R. Milward Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 298: An effeminate pansy-chimp.

2. in fig. use, liberal, unthreatening.

2012

(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 445: As fucked as this gig is, it’s a total doss compared tae even the pansiest nick.