different between patsy vs palsy

English

Etymology

The term dates back at least to the 1870s in the United States, close to the peak of Irish migration.The OED's recent revisions link Patsy with Pat and Paddy, the stereotype of the bogtrotter just off the boat.The American Heritage Dictionary and Online Etymology Dictionary quotes the OED it may derive from the Italian pazzo (“madman”), and south Italian dialect paccio (“fool”).Another possibility is the term derives from Patsy Bolivar, a character in an 1880s minstrel skit who was blamed whenever anything went wrong, in Broadway musical comedies, for example in The Errand Boy [1904] and Patsy in Politics [1907].

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pætsi/
• Rhymes: -ætsi

Noun

patsy (plural patsies)

1. (informal, derogatory) A person who is taken advantage of, especially by being cheated or blamed for something.

Synonyms

• (by being cheated): sucker; see also Thesaurus:dupe
• (by being blamed): scapegoat; see also Thesaurus:scapegoat

Translations

Anagrams

• Tyaps, pasty

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English palesie, from Anglo-Norman paralisie, parleisie et al., from Latin paralysis, from Ancient Greek ????????? (parálusis, “palsy”), from ??????? (paralú?, “to disable on one side”), from ????- (para-, “beside”) + ??? (lú?, “loosen”). Doublet of paralysis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??lzi/

Noun

palsy (countable and uncountable, plural palsies)

1. (pathology) Complete or partial muscle paralysis of a body part, often accompanied by a loss of feeling and uncontrolled body movements such as shaking.
   • c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665):

     The palsie plagues my pulses
     when I prigg yo?: piggs or pullen
     your culuers take, or matchles make
     your Chanticleare or sullen

   Synonym: paralysis

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

palsy (third-person singular simple present palsies, present participle palsying, simple past and past participle palsied)

1. To paralyse, either completely or partially.
   • 1831, William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, To The Public [1]

     In the month of August, I issued proposals for publishing "THE LIBERATOR" in Washington city; but the enterprise, though hailed in different sections of the country, was palsied by public indifference.

   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, volume 2, chapter 9

     Its streets were blocked up with snow - the few passengers seemed palsied with snow, and frozen by the ungenial visitation of winter.

Etymology 2

From pals +? -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pælzi/

Adjective

palsy (comparative more palsy, superlative most palsy)

1. (colloquial) Chummy, friendly.

Further reading

• palsy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• palsy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• palsy at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• plays, splay, spyal