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.
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.