• Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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    2 days ago

    Is pussy in the meaning of coward related to woman genitals? I always thought it was from pussy as in kitten. It doesn’t really make sense if it’s from the vulva meaning.

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
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      2 days ago

      That’s the funny thing about language. How words transform doesn’t always make sense. Virtually nobody who is a native speaker of English uses the word “pussy” to mean “cat/kitten,” anymore. It is almost exclusively used to mean a vulva, and whether it started as meaning a cat or not when used as an insult, I believe it no longer carries that same connotation of “cat” as its primary meaning.

      I would suspect, though this is just my guess, that you would be in the minority, today, for thinking that pussy being used as an insult refers to kittens. I agree that makes more logical sense, but language and idioms aren’t always logical.