Kiss-her-in-the-buttery
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Synonym of wild pansy (“Viola tricolor, a European wildflower with medicinal properties, which was formerly believed to ease heartache”) no-plural
"From its coquettish hanging head and half-hidden face, the Pansy bears a whole catalogue of amatory names: it is Heart's-ease, Love in Idleness, Pink of my John[,] Tittle my Fancy, Jump up and Kiss me, Kiss behind the Garden Gate, Meet-her-in-the-entry-and-kiss-her-in-the-buttery—the longest Plant-name surely in any language."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"From its coquettish hanging head and half-hidden face, the Pansy bears a whole catalogue of amatory names: it is Heart's-ease, Love in Idleness, Pink of my John[,] Tittle my Fancy, Jump up and Kiss me, Kiss behind the Garden Gate, Meet-her-in-the-entry-and-kiss-her-in-the-buttery—the longest Plant-name surely in any language."
Etymology
From kiss + her + in + the + buttery (“room for keeping food or beverages, storeroom”), from the way the flower’s petals are said to resemble the faces of two people kissing: see the 1891 and 2010 quotations. Compare other vernacular names for the wild pansy like come-and-cuddle-me, heart’s delight, Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me, kiss-me-at-the-gate, love-in-idleness, and tickle-my-fancy. (The word buttery is etymologically unrelated to butter, though the latter may have influenced the shift in meaning from “room for keeping alcoholic beverages” to “room for keeping food or beverages”.)
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.