patsy

Meaning

A person who is taken advantage of, especially by being cheated or blamed for something.

Synonyms

fall guy

sucker

chump

fool

soft touch

mark

mug

gull

foolish

front man

goon

goose

🪿

goosey

goosy

gormless

half-witted

light-headed

ninny

nudnik

sap

scapegoat

silly

simpleton

tool

turkey

whipping boy

goofball

gaumless

airhead

nudnick

changeling

daft

dimwit

duffer

dummy

dupe

feebleminded

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpætsi/

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].