# Pansy



## Maroseika

*English *- cupid's-delight, flamy, heartsease, kiss-me, lady's-delight, look-up-and-kiss-me, none-so-pretty, pansy 
*German *- Stiefmütterchen (small stepmother)
*Norwegian *- stemorsblomst (stemnother's flower)
*Portuguese *- amor-perfeito (perfect lover)
*Spanish *- suspiro (sigh), pensamiento (thought), trinitaria (< Lat. triple = three-coloured)
*Italian *- viola del pensiero (violet of thought), suocera (mother-in-law), 
*French *- pensée (thought)
*Russian *- анютины глазки (small eyes of An'uta (girl name))
*Ukrainian *- братки (brothers), брат-і-сестра (brother and sister), полуцвіт (half-coloured)
*Belorussian *- браткі (brothers)
*Turkish *- hercai menekşe (erratic violet)
*Tatar *- елан күзе (snake eye)
*Hungarian *- árvácska (orphant)

*Dutch *- driekleurig viooltje (three-colour violet)
*Kirghis *- алагүл (motley flower).


What else? And of course, your corrections if any...


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## bibax

Czech: like in German (as per usual)
*maceška* = dim. of macecha (_= stepmother_)


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## sakvaka

*Finnish*: _orvokki_ (< orpo = orphant, compare with Hungarian)


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## beccamutt

Hi Maroseika,

I believe most of the English names that you have above are varieties of pansies rather than synonyms for the general flower name.  "None-so-pretty" is a different flower entirely.

Becca


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## Maroseika

sakvaka said:


> *Finnish*: _orvokki_ (< orpo = orphant, compare with Hungarian)


According to my dictionary _orvokki means _any violet. Is it true or it means exactly the violet called "pansy"?


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## sakvaka

Maroseika said:


> According to my dictionary _orvokki means _any violet. Is it true or it means exactly the violet called "pansy"?



That's right, _orvokki_ can be any member of the genus _Viola_. The exact term for _Viola tricolor_ is _keto-orvokki_ (field-violet), but I believe that few people can tell the species apart .


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## Tamar

In Hebrew it's called אמנון ותמר _amnon ve-tamar = _Amnon and Tamar


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## Maroseika

Tamar said:


> In Hebrew it's called אמנון ותמר _amnon ve-tamar = _Amnon and Tamar


I.e. brother and sister? How ancient is this name?


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## Tamar

I found on Wikipedia that the flower was given it's name because of a book _Ahavat Zion_ written in 1853 by Abraham Mapu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Mapu.
Mapu used the biblical names for a love story.


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## ThomasK

I checked in Dutch, but found no other name. Yet, what I liked was that it is also called *'Johnny-jump(-up)'*, and was the basis of Oberon's love potion in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_. Others: *Call-me-to-you, Herb trinit, Love-in-idleness, Pinkeney John. *
French : also *pensée sauvage, or tricolore*. In Frysian/ *Frysk*: Trijekleurfioeltsje (drie-kleur-viooltje). Chinese: “*zi hua di ding'*. 

The name 'Viola' means the 'overwhelmed', the 'overpowered', but 'vion' is supposed to mean 'smelling well'. But how come this plant gets that many names ? Anyone any idea ?


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## Maroseika

ThomasK said:


> The name 'Viola' means the 'overwhelmed', the 'overpowered', but 'vion' is supposed to mean 'smelling well'. But how come this plant gets that many names ? Anyone any idea ?


I don't think "viola" has anything to do with Latin _violo_ - overwhelm. It rather refers to Viola - feminine name, i.e. just one more poetic names of this flower family. 
But in what language "vion" mean "smelling well"?


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## Outsider

Maroseika said:


> *Portuguese *- amor-perfeito (perfect lover)


Or "perfect love". I'm not sure which is the best translation.


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## Nizo

A few variants in *Esperanto*:  _trikoloreto, trikolora penseo, trikolora violo._


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## Maroseika

Outsider said:


> Or "perfect love". I'm not sure which is the best translation.


Me too. But I concluded by analogy with the names in our languages that what's meant was rather a person than a feeling.


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
Πανσές, Pan'ses (_m._)


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## Maroseika

apmoy70 said:


> In Greek:
> Πανσές, Pan'ses (_m._)


You mean this is English loan and there is no proper Greek name?


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## apmoy70

Maroseika said:


> You mean this is English loan and there is no proper Greek name?


Its ancient name was «ἴον» ('iŏn, _n._) but it is not used at all. We prefer the name πανσές


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## Encolpius

In *Hungarian*, árvácska is actually no orphan, because orphan is árva, but it sounds hard, so we use a diminutive -cska, so literally árvácska means little orphan. It is also the title of a famous Hungarian novel. In that case Árvácska is the name of a little girl. Logical.


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## Hakro

I was going to answer that a pansy (= homosexual) is nowadays often called _Tero_ in Finnish, but then I found that Maroseika was talking about flowers.


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## elirlandes

In *Irish - *goirmín
Could it be from blue (=gorm) with diminutive suffix ( -ín )? i.e. the "little blue"


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## Maroseika

apmoy70 said:


> Its ancient name was «» ('iŏn, _n._) but it is not used at all. We prefer the name πανσές


What did *ἴον *mean literally?


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## apmoy70

Maroseika said:


> What did *ἴον *mean literally?


Violet (colour). No-one knows with certainty, its etymology though. According to _Liddell-Scott (a Greek-English lexikon, 1996)_ it's mentioned (among others) in Sappho's poetry ("στέφανοι ἴων-->Viola odorata"), in Odyssey ("λειμῶνες ἴου-->Meadows of Violas" and "ἴον τὸ λευκόν-->gilliflower, Matthiola incana")


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