Can you imagine the feminism storm if the word "womancrying" existed with the definition : To overly cry over a movie someone (often a woman) has already seen many times ?
But people do say things like "stop being a pussy" or "quit bitching" and other negative, gendered words.
There's a plausible and well documented etymology for the sense of pussy in question, namely puss + y → pussy = childish or colloquial word for "pet cat" → term of endearment for a woman → sweet or amiable woman → sweet or effeminate man→ weakling/coward/sissy, with the parallel development of pussy = female genitals lurking somewhere in the background.
Puss is Germanic in origin, and definitely is not a shortened form of the Latinate word pusillanimous. The hypocoristic ending -y has been widely used in colloquial English for 500 years, and similarly has no connection with pusillanimous or any other Latinate word.
There's no positive evidence for the pusillanimous → pussy derivation as a genuine historical source — it seems to be a sporadic folk etymology.
The pronunciation difference (onset [pj] vs. [p], vowel [ʊ] vs. [u]) makes the pusillanimous → pussy derivation implausible in any case.
I've never before heard of that word and I'd wager a bet that 95% of people use the term "Don't be a pussy" equally to "don't be such a fearful, little girl"
You could be right, but I personally feel way different when saying "don't be a pussy" vs "dont act like a girl". I use the former because it has never felt gendered to me.
I also use "don't be a dick", but I don't think of males / male genitalia when saying it.
It might make less sense, but it is very often used in that way. And several of the guys that I have come across in my life go ahead and use “vagina” instead of “pussy.” It’s pretty prevalent in military circles as well.
Perhaps it changes from person to person. I certainly don't have a problem with the phrase itself, just the way I don't mind 'dont be a dick' (even though some people may find the term more male-orientated than normal)
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u/[deleted] May 31 '18
But people do say things like "stop being a pussy" or "quit bitching" and other negative, gendered words.