Pussy

Pussy is a noun, an adjective, and in rare uses a verb in the English language. It has several meanings, including use as slang, as euphemism, and as vulgarity. Common meanings of the noun include 'cat', as well as 'coward or weakling', and 'the human vulva or vagina', or as a synecdoche, 'sexual intercourse with a woman'. Because of its multiple senses including both innocent and vulgar connotations, 'pussy' is often the subject of double entendre. The etymology of the word is not entirely clear. Several different senses of the word have different histories or origins. The noun pussy meaning 'cat' comes from the Modern English word puss, a conventional name or term of address for a pet cat. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says that cognates are common to several Germanic languages, including Dutch poes and Middle Low German pūse, which are also used to call a cat. The word puss is attested in English as early as 1533. Earlier etymology is uncertain, but similar words exist in other European languages, including Lithuanian puižė and Irish puisín, both traditional calls to attract a cat. The words puss and derived forms pussy and pusscat were extended to refer to girls or women by the seventeenth century. This sense of pussy was used to refer specifically to genitalia by the eighteenth century, and from there further extended to refer to sexual intercourse involving a woman by the twentieth century. Noah Webster, in his original 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, defined pussy as: 'inflated, swelled; hence, fat, short and thick; and as persons of this make labor in respiration, the word is used for short breathed'. He gave pursy as a 'corrupt orthography' or misspelling of pussy. In 1913, however, Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary reversed the original, suggesting that pussy was a 'colloquial or low' variant of pursy. That word, in turn, was defined as 'fat and short-breathed', with etymology from Old French pousser 'to push'. The Webster's Third International Dictionary points out similarities between pussy in the sense of 'vulva' and Low German or Scandinavian words meaning 'pocket' or 'purse', including Old Norse pūss and Old English pusa. The medieval French word pucelle, meaning 'maiden' or 'virgin', is not related to the English word. It is attested in Old French from the ninth century, and likely derives from Latin. The precise Latin source is disputed, with either puella 'girl' or pulla 'pullet, young female chicken' suggested as earlier sources. As a homograph, pussy also has the meaning 'containing pus'; with this meaning, the word is pronounced /ˈpʌsi/, while the other forms are all pronounced /ˈpʊsi/. Another adjective is the rare or obsolete Northern English dialect form pursy meaning 'fat' or 'short-winded'.