My earliest assumptions when hearing them as a kid was that pussy was related to cats, and dick to Richards.

By my tweens, I had realized that dick was referring to penis when most people used it, but if was another year or two before I learned that pussy referred to female genitals.

See, pussy wasn’t actually the common term for labia around here. The most common was actually cooter, with “bottom” being for the younger set. Tush, rear, or backside was for the butt.

So, pussy was only used for wimps, and my assumption was that it was synonymous with scaredy cat, and maybe even derived from that. The first time someone asked if I wanted to see their pussy, I genuinely thought they had a pet cat. Imagine my surprise when I said yes, got very happy, and she pulled down her panties.

A conversation ensued eventually. I sure as hell wasn’t objecting, so I tabled the whole slang thing and enjoyed the mutual exchange of genital access on a visual and tactile level.

But I did ask why she called it that. She said it was because grown up women look like they have a cat between their legs because it’s very hairy down there. I though she might be pulling my leg, so I asked my mom. After she stopped laughing, she admitted that she didn’t know for sure why it was called that, but she had heard the same explanation when she was a girl.

A friend of mine, after I told him that story, related to me that when he first saw a naked girl, he went to his dad and said he finally knew why they called it pussy. When asked why that was, he responded that it looks like a cat’s backside when girls are bent over. Which, I kinda get.