Literature Network » P. G. Wodehouse

Words: Patsy, n.

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From: The Independent - London
Date: 20000223
Author:CHRISTOPHER HAWTREE

FRANK DOBSON would have us believe that, "I am nobody's patsy."

P G Wodehouse has a "fellow whom Fate has called upon to be the Patsy, the Squidge or, putting it another way, the man who has been left holding the baby". Patsy is turn of the century, its origins called unknown by the OED, but Green moots a variant of Patrick; Ayto, the Italian pazzo - fool; and Chapman, Patsy Bolivar, the fall guy in an 1880s minstrel skit.

To posterity, Frank Dobson will suggest a goatee beard - that on the great sculptor.

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