Percy
nounUK /ˈpɜːsi/ · US /ˈpɜɹsi/
Etymology
Proper noun senses 1 (surname) and 3 (place names) are derived from Norman Percy (“a baronial surname”), from Percy-en-Auge (“a place in Pays d’Auge, Normandy, France”, literally “Percy in Auge”), from Old French Perci, from Late Latin Persiacum, from Latin Persius (“a Gallo-Roman nomen gentile”), from Etruscan 𐌐𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (persu); further etymology uncertain, possibly from 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask”). Proper noun sense 2 (given name) is either from the above, or is a clipping of Perc(ival) + -y (suffix forming familiar names). The common noun is derived from the proper noun. Sense 2 (“penis”) is probably from the fact that Percy and penis begin with the same letter.
Also, Derogatory, Slang A male person regarded as unmanly or weak; a sissy.
- The military arm is considerably bothered by the problem of what to do with him [the conscientious objector]. It tacitly invites the rank and file to have a lark with him in barracks, in the hope that if he is bullied and told that he will be shot next morning, and mobbed and pilloried and photographed in The Daily Sketch as Percy (all Percies are now—shade of Hotspur!—supposed to be cowards) he will, perhaps, stop giving trouble.1915 May 27, [George] Bernard Shaw, “The Conscientious Objector: Conscientious Objectors”, in What I Really Wrote about the War, standard edition, London: Constable and Company, published 1931, →OCLC, page 226:
- He never palliated his villainy, never helped old ladies across the street to show that he was a sweet kid au fond or prated about his Oedipus complex like the Percy boys who portray heavies today.1957, S[idney] J[oseph] Perelman, “Cloudland Revisited: Vintage Swine”, in The Road to Miltown: Or, Under the Spreading Atrophy (A Touchstone Book), 1st Touchstone paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, published 1971, →ISBN, page 88:
Also, Derogatory, Historical, Slang A male conscientious objector.
Government, Military, Politics, War Also, Derogatory, Slang An educated soldier; specifically, an officer.
- ["]I must admit I'm not terribly good at figures." / "Never met an officer as was," said Sam. "Most of the young Percies in our mob had to take their boots off to count up to twenty. But don't worry about that. Aunty'll give you the figures. She's got 'em all in her head, like a bleedin' adding machine. It's her handwriting and spelling that gets everybody down. It's soddin' awful she can't read it herself five minutes after."1974, Berkely Mather [pseudonym; John Evan Weston-Davies], chapter 21, in The White Dacoit, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →ISBN, page 196:
- Derived terms
- Percy boy, point Percy at the porcelain