- paddy (n.1)
- "rice field," 1620s, "rice plant," from Malay padi "rice in the straw." Main modern meaning "ground where rice is growing" (1948) is a shortening of paddy field.
- Paddy (n.2)
- "Irishman," 1780, slang, from the pet form of the common Irish proper name Patrick (Irish Padraig). It was in use in African-American vernacular by 1946 for any "white person." Paddy wagon is 1930, perhaps so called because many police officers were Irish. Paddywhack (1881) originally meant "an Irishman."
