Made you look.
Actually, there is a question here. I need to know the etymology of the word “pussy,” as a synonym for “wimp.” Is it a secondary derivation from the vulgar term for the part of the female anatomy, or a direct derivation from the term for a skittish feline?
OK, you got me! I looked.
I also looked in my Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, and three online dictionaries (incl. Webster), and found nothing.
A typical entry was this:
Dictionary Results
6 words found.
Main Entry: 1pussy
Pronunciation: 'pu-sE
Function: noun
Etymology: [^1]puss
Date: 1726
Inflected Form(s): plural puss.ies
1 : CAT
2 : a catkin of the pussy willow
Main Entry: 2pus.sy
Pronunciation: 'pu-sE
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps of Low German or Scandinavian origin; akin to Old
Norse puss pocket, pouch, Low German puse vulva, Old English pusa bag
Date: circa 1879
Inflected Form(s): plural pussies
1 usually vulgar : VULVA
2 a usually vulgar : SEXUAL INTERCOURSE b usually vulgar : the female
partner in sexual intercourse
Main Entry: 3pus.sy
Pronunciation: 'p&-sE
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1890
Inflected Form(s): pus.si.er; -est
: full of or resembling pus
Main Entry: 4pus.sy
Pronunciation: 'p&-sE
variant of<SUP>1]pursy
Main Entry: pussy willow
Pronunciation: 'pu-sE-
Function: noun
Date: 1869
: a willow (as the American Salix discolor) having large cylindrical silky
aments
Main Entry: wood pussy
Function: noun
Date: circa 1899
: SKUNK
I guess the usage in question is probably a back-formation from “pussy cat”, suggesting that a person is soft and not a threat.
I’d be willing to bet that your first guess is correct – this is a secondary derivation from slang for female pudenda. Why do I say this? Because people won’t call someone a “pussy” in a public forum – you won’t find it in newspapers or TV or at polite dinner conversation. This, to me, indicates that people think that this is a vulgar term. But there’s np stigma at all to saying “he’s just a big pussy cat”, where the addition of “cat” shows that the person is being compared to a feline.
Of course, the skittish behavior of cats probably adds to the meaning in the first case – we don’t live in a vacuum, and secondary meanings can certainly influence words derived from other places.
What Calmeacham said. Plus the fact that we also get called “faggot” and variants on that theme.
The belief formula from which they’re working is that men ought to be different from women in personality and behavior; that, if you find some male who is more like a female in personality and behavior, he isn’t a real man, he might as well be a woman and he either wants to be fucked or deserves to be fucked by real men, which means he’s a fag, which again means he’s more like a woman than a man.
Actually at its core what it’s saying is “you are rapable and that makes you contemptible”.
I don’t know when the first cite of “pussy” referring to a “weak man” occurred, but I’d be willing to bet that the term “pussycat” meaning a “a guy who seems gruff, but is really pretty cool” predates it. It’s not a big leap from “pussycat” to “pussy.”
Well as long as we’re here, can someone tell me how long is has been a vulgar term for female pudenda? Wondered about that ever since I read “Dr. No”.
There is a Chinese goddess named Poo See who “caused all the ills of the world.” I guess the etymologies given above are the correct ones, but one could theorize that during WWII the army men picked up the name of this goddess and applied it as it has been applied!
Am I the only one who has an obscure line from a movie running through their head? Something like “You’re a wussy… part wimp and part pussy.” Can’t even remember the movie, but I’ve ALWAYS remembered the line (used it on my brother once…).
Now it’s gonna bug me all day…
The Breakfast Club?
Frankly, I’m more concerned with using pussy as an adjective to describe “resembling pus”
Someone sent me an email relaying a story and said “there was a sort of pussy slime all over my arm”
You can’t IMAGINE what was going through my head.
jarbaby
Sure, websters:
“perhaps of Low German or Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse p*ss pocket, pouch, Low German pse vulva, Old English pusa bag
Date:circa 1879”
pussy=pocket.
Long D.:
I wonder why Dr. No made you wonder that. It might have occurred to me while reading Goldfinger, since that book/movie had a character named Pussy Galore in it, but I didn’t know the word figured prominently in Dr. No as well.
jarbabyj: When using the word that way, you pronounce it to rhyme with “bus.” When I need to use a modifier meaning “oozing pus,” I usually spell it “pus-y” or “pus-ey.” That’s probably wrong, but it helps make my meaning clear, so that makes it right.
I checked out the OED online, and it agrees with what our Ozzie friend posted from the Shorter OED.
I’m starting to think that it was a back-formation of “pussyfoot,” to behave timidly.
I meant to add that I’ll take a look at DARE when I get to work tonight…
As for pussy (vulva), there’s nothing I love better. My most cherished and precious object of affection. So why on earth would anyone abuse it as a term of opprobrium? In other words, if it’s a putdown, it devalues and degrades the feminine. Why not love and praise and exalt the feminine, the pussy, the yoni?
Margot Magowan has started a campaign to rehabilitate the word pussy and turn it into a positive epithet. Her project’s web site is called Team Pussy. She also wrote an article for Salon.com about turning around the use of pussy to make it a compliment. “Take the wussy out of pussy.” Check it out.
Ummm…OK. Make that “Goldfinger” then. Gee. I read a bunch of Bond novels years ago…blah blah blah
I always thought it was a shortened version of pusillanimous.
From Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: pu·sil·lan·i·mous
Pronunciation: -'la-n&-m&s
Function: adjective
Etymology: Late Latin pusillanimis, from Latin pusillus very small (diminutive of pusus boy) + animus spirit; perhaps akin to Latin puer child – more at PUERILE, ANIMATE
Date: 1586
: lacking courage and resolution : marked by contemptible timidity
synonym see COWARDLY