this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

My understanding is Germanic Puss (as in cat) comes from the sound a cat makes when hissing, and over time "Pussy" means someone who is scared/angry

Thus the term "Scaredy-cat" as well.

My understanding is calling someone a pussy is literally just a more vulgar version of scaredy-cat, not a woman's vagina.

And calling someone a cat as a derogatory term way predates it as a term for vagina.

It's why we have words like "catty", in the 1600s "Puss" was a term for (primarily a woman) who was acting very sour / mean (like a cat)

Pussy as a term for a vagina came way after, when "Puss" started to become a term of endearment (and now we cringe at someone calling their SO "Kitten"), and then further on to become sexual in meaning.