Pussy willow, for example, is a name applied to various species in the genus Salix with furry catkins. In the 19th century, the meaning was extended to anything soft and furry. In addition to cats, the word was also used for rabbits and hares. Adjective meanings are likewise related to the noun.īoth in English and in German puss was used as a 'call-name' for cats, but in English pussy was used as a synonym for the word cat in other uses as well. Meanings of the verb relate to the common noun senses, including 'to act like a cat', 'to act like a coward', or 'to have sex with a woman'. Īs a homograph, pussy also has the meaning 'containing pus' with this meaning, the word is pronounced / ˈ p ʌ s i/, while the other forms are all pronounced / ˈ p ʊ s i/. The precise Latin source is disputed, with either puella 'girl' or pulla ' pullet, young female chicken' suggested as earlier sources. It is attested in Old French from the ninth century, and likely derives from Latin. The medieval French word pucelle, meaning 'maiden' or 'virgin', is not related to the English word. 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. In the Northern English variant of British English, the dialect form pursy, now rare or obsolete, means 'fat' or 'short-winded'. That word, in turn, was defined as 'fat and short-breathed', with etymology from Old French pousser 'to push'. In 1913, however, Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary reversed the original, suggesting that pussy was a 'colloquial or low' variant of pursy. He gave pursy as a 'corrupt orthography' or misspelling of pussy. 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'. 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. The words puss and derived forms pussy and pusscat were extended to refer to girls or women by the seventeenth century. 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 word puss is attested in English as early as 1533. 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 noun pussy meaning 'cat' comes from the Modern English word puss, a conventional name or term of address for a pet cat.

Ipicture ru girls pussu