925: pussy Jun 21, 2017

If your mind is dirty enough, there are plenty of words that look like they should be related to a swear or something sexual, but this isn't always the case. To answer a fan-question, 'pusillanimous' meaning "lacking courage" doesn't have an apparent connection to the word 'pussy', even though that too can also be an insult for someone timid. The former term is from Latin via Greek meaning 'small mind', related to 'animus', whereas the latter term is Germanic, among other reasons. That does not mean however that there aren't other modern words that have some sort of etymological connection. 'Pussy', which is used in many senses including 'cat' and 'vagina' comes from an Old English word 'pusa' meaning 'bag', related to the Old Norse for 'pocket' though not the English word 'purse'. The word is also related to the Low German for 'vulva', though early uses in English did not gain the sense of 'pudenda' for a while, because even before that, the word referred to cats. In a fairly general sense, the word went from meaning a small purse to then simply a small soft thing; then it went to mean 'cat' and eventually also 'vagina'. Coincidentally, the French word 'chat' foremost refers to the animal, but as slang also does denote a woman's genitals.

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