Top·sy
a small black girl character in the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851-52) by Harriet Beecher Stowe. When somebody asks her whether she knows who made her (that is, whether she has heard of God), she replies "I expect I grow'd" (=grew) . People say something "just grew, like Topsy" when they are talking about something whose real origin is not known or about something that has gradually become very large.