How the Word Pussy Came to Mean a Cat, Cowardly, and Female Genitalia
Ever wondered why a pussy means a cat and a vagina, here is why
This is one of those random posts which came about in the most random of ways. I was speaking to a friend and for some reason or another, I have no clue what reason, the subject of the origins of the word pussy came up. Why does pussy mean a cat, female genitalia, and a coward/wimp?
Perhaps the coward/wimp could be explained, after all, there is the word scaredy-cat. But the link to female genitalia definitely seems a stretch. I sure as hell cannot think of any time when looking at a lady’s downstairs department that I thought, wow, that reminds me of a cat.
The question is, what gives?
Well, after doing a bit of googling, the first thing that gives is that there seems to be a good number of people who disagree with me, and think a cat does remind them of a lady’s downstairs.
As such, many argue this is the link, arguing that because female genitalia are soft and gentle like cats, this is why pussy means vagina.
However, further research proved this to be inaccurate. It truly does seem that based on the evidence, the link between pussy and vagina is not related to appearance — yep, cats can now sigh a great sigh of relief.
But what is the link? Well, my friend argued that it was most likely a result of sexism and homophobia, and not just the vagina part, the coward/wimp part as well.
In fact, he was certain of this. The question is, was he right?
Well, before attempting to answer that, I just wish to say that I am a big fan of the evolution of words, I have always been fascinated by how words come to take on entirely different meanings over time.
It seems crazy to me that two thousand years from now, even if we are still speaking the English language, there is a high probability that the English language of the year 4000 will be near enough a foreign language to the people who speak it today.
That means the word pussy may mean something totally different by then.
But I’m digressing, returning to the point, before understanding how the word pussy came to mean what it does, we must first understand where the word first came from.
How the word pussy made it into the English language
The common consensus seems to be that no one has any idea how the word pussy made it into the English language; however, there are theories.
The most widely believed is that the word first arrived in Britain from Germany in the 15th century in the form of the word puss.
Puss means cat, and the consensus seems to be that puss evolved into pussy and pussy evolved over the next 500 years or so to mean not just a cat, but a coward and female genitalia.
In fact, this is how the dictionary defines the meaning of pussy (taken from the Collins dictionary which sits on my bookshelf):
1. informal
- a cat.
2. vulgar slang
- a woman’s genitals.
- women in general, considered sexually.
- a weak, cowardly, or effeminate man.
But despite its present meaning, it’s pretty clear that when it first entered the English language, it did just mean cat.
So a cat has always been and still is its primary meaning. Considering this, it would be easy to deduce that the cowardly meaning somehow was related to scaredy-cat.
I did some googling and to my surprise, it is clear that that is not the case. There is no link at all between the phrase scaredy-cat and the word pussy as a slang word.
To explain, the word scaredy-cat first appeared in print in Dorothy Parker’s The Waltz, published in 1933. However, there is much evidence that proves that the word pussy has been used to mean weak and cowardly since at least the 16th/17th centuries.
That means the fact that cats are “scaredy-cats” has nothing to do with the meaning of the word pussy.
I have to be honest I was quite surprised by this, but the evidence was clear.
With this in mind, I continued my search and came across a popular meme which claimed that pussy means weak and cowardly because it is a shortened version of the word pusillanimous.
Is pusillanimous the reason pussy means what it does?
Pusillanimous means timid and lacking courage, so it’s easy to see why people may assume that pussy is a shortened version of pusillanimous. However, a simple Google search reveals that this is a myth and that there is no link between the two words.
That means pusillanimous is not the answer to our question, and I must be honest at this point it was becoming quite difficult to imagine finding an answer.
But not one for giving up, I continued to search and came across a forum in which people were discussing this very question.
To say the least, I found some interesting opinions, most of which were simply ridiculous but some of which were highly amusing. My personal favourite was the person that wondered whether the link to a woman’s genitalia came about because of some old housewives tale.
To tell the story, she claimed that it was probably because of an old housewives tale where women would sit on their chairs with their pussy cats on their laps, giving them a stroke, and that somehow it went from women caressing their pussy cats to women caressing their pussy’s.
Ridiculous of course and most probably highly tongue in cheek but top marks for ingenuity.
Anyhow, outside of the outlandish explanations, the common consensus was more logical. It was that it had to be something to do with the hair on cats being linked to female pubic hair.
However, I had already confirmed it was not to do with appearance, I did some more Googling anyway just in case, to see if I had missed something in my earlier search.
I had not, it truly appears not linked to appearance, as such, I was still no closer to finding why pussy came to mean female genitalia. However, I did find the reason why beaver does so — a small win.
Due to health reasons in colonial times (pubic hair was spreading STDs), female prostitutes were made to shave their genitalia bald. Punters did not like this (i.e. they preferred hairy — how times change), and so pubic wigs called merkins were manufactured for the prostitutes.
This allowed them to shave and then use wigs for their pubic hair, thus pleasing their punters while lowering their risk of catching STDs. These pubic wigs were made from beaver pelts, which led to a woman’s downstairs region being called a beaver.
So, hair was the reason behind a woman’s genitalia being called a beaver, but not a pussy, which begs the question of just why the heck does the word mean female genitalia?
How the word pussy took on its extra meanings
After doing a lot more googling I managed to find some evidence-based answers.
Firstly, as said “cat” is its true meaning, with the word pussy first appearing in print in relation to a cat back in the 16th century, so the 1500s. At this time, it was popular to praise a woman’s appearance by telling her she had feline-like features.
Basically, feline features were seen as the height of femininity, which means they were seen as the opposite of masculinity. This led to the word pussy cat becoming a popular way for a man to praise a woman’s appearance.
In this reality, we have our explanation for the first slang meaning of the word pussy, “A woman in general, considered sexually.” It was a way for guys to say a girl was hot.
However, if back then calling a woman a pussy cat was the ultimate praise, then calling a man a pussy cat becomes the ultimate insult i.e. you would be calling him a woman. In the 16th century, this was close to, if not the ultimate insult for a man.
In this reality, we have our explanation for the second slang meaning, “A weak, cowardly, or effeminate man.”
Also, just to add to that, reports from the time made clear that a certain type of man was most often called a pussy, a one believed to be homosexual, so gay.
That means back in the 16th century, call a woman a pussy cat and you’re giving her the ultimate praise, call a man a pussy cat and you’re hitting him with what back then was the ultimate insult.
That is to say, you were calling him a woman, which back then was tantamount to calling him a homosexual i.e. a feminine man a.k.a. an effeminate man a.k.a. a weak and cowardly man.
But this still does not answer the question of how pussy came to mean female genitalia. I guessed it might have something to do with pussy cat meaning womanly features i.e. call someone a pussy cat and you are saying they have womanly features.
However, despite endless hours of Googling, I was unable to find an exact reason for the female genitalia link.
But I did find that it wasn’t until the 19th/20th century that it took on the meaning, and it wasn’t until porn became mainstream that the word fell into popular use as a meaning for female genitalia.
This likely matters, and likely holds the true reason why pussy means female genitalia.
Why pussy most likely means female genitalia
I came across the following statement while investigating the words link to porn: “Women are pussies, and pussies are for f*****g, and that’s why pussy means female genitalia.”
Whether this is accurate or not, I have no idea.
However, considering that women were called pussies as praise, and men were called pussies as an insult, and these realities led the word to take on new meanings i.e. as praise for a woman, and an insult to a man, it does not seem much of a stretch to go from “that is one sexy pussy cat”, to “I’d love to f**k that pussy.”
If you’re talking about sex, there is one female body part that men are most interested in. Added altogether, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what you end up with.
As such, it is probable that this is the most likely way the word came to take on the meaning of female genitalia, which means my friend was probably right, the origins of the word are likely heavily steeped in homophobia and sexism.
Final words
In conclusion, pussy most likely means what it means because women in the 16th century were termed pussy cats as a form of endearment, and over time because men want to f**k a pussy, but they don’t want to be one, it took on its additional meanings.
Perhaps the saddest indictment of this reality is the fact that today it is still an insult for a man to be called a woman.
With this in mind, maybe it’s time that the word pussy stopped being seen as an insult, or perhaps Betty White puts it best:
“Why do people say grow some balls? Balls are weak and sensitive! If you really want to get tough, grow a vagina, those things can take a pounding.”
Betty White
In fact, I like that, instead of grow some balls grow a pussy.
Or perhaps even better, instead of you took that like a man, you took that like a pussy. Or perhaps even better still, if you want to be tough, don’t act like a man, act like a pussy, those things can take a pounding.
I’ll leave you with that thought.
That’s all from me, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, you may also like the following:
Seven Immense Privileges of The Modern World
30 Hilarious Scientific Jokes That Will Test Your Intelligence to the Limits
The Ten Craziest And Most Death-Defying Stage Acts Of All Time
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