Johnny-jump-up

[ jon-ee-juhmp-uhp ]

noun

1. any of certain violets, especially Viola pedunculata, having variously colored flowers.
2. a small form of the pansy, V. tricolor.

Johnny-jump-up

noun

1. any of several violaceous plants, esp the wild pansy

Word History and Origins

Origin of Johnny-jump-up¹

1835–45, Americanism; so called from its rapid rate of growth; Johnny

Word History and Origins

Origin of Johnny-jump-up¹

C19: so called from its quick growth

Example Sentences

In the U. S., only brash, Johnny-jump-up William Saroyan hastens more incontinently to answer his critics than Playwright Clifford Odets.

From Time Magazine Archive

One Johnny-jump-up, but an apron-full Of starry crowfoot, making mossy dells Dim with heaven's morning blue; dew-dripping plumes Of waxen "dog-mouths"; red the tippling cups Of gypsy-lilies all along the creek, Where dull the freckled silence sleeps, and dark The water runs when, at high noon, the cows Wade knee-deep and the heat hums drowsy with The drone of dizzy flies;—one Samson-flower Blue-streaked and crystal as a summer's cloud; White violets, milk-weed, scarlet Indian-pinks, All fragile-scented and familiar as Pink baby faces and blue infant eyes.

From Project Gutenberg

Plant a little boy and what?—Johnny-jump-up.

From Project Gutenberg

I won’t see Johnny-jump-up to-day.”

From Project Gutenberg

“I’m going to the woods,” he said, “to see Johnny-jump-up.”

From Project Gutenberg