I Love Little Pussy

[Jonathan Lighter]

Truly pathetic.

These exx. are either from many years ago or entirely irrelevant (like
Pussy Galore, who was not a feline).  And if "pussy" is always accepted as
innocent, why wasn't it "Josie and the Pussies"?

_Pussy_ 'coward; weakling' has strongly sexual/sexist overtones and always
has, in my experience. That's not to say that some benighted souls don't
derive it from "pussycat." But it will be a long time before you hear a
public figure use it before a crowd, IMO.  ("Wimp," of course, is fine.)

To restate the point: it is no longer customary in my experience for adults
to refer to cats affectionately (at least within the hearing of other
people) as "pussies" or "pussycats." The words they prefer are "kitties"
and "kitty-cats."  Or "puddies" or  "puddy-tats."

For obvious reasons.

Ask a vet.

JL

On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 3:46 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: I Love Little Pussy
>
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>
> ... as is Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) where I watched it not
> six months ago.
>
> There's also the absolutely awful Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You (1970)
> and the silly Josie and the Pussycats (2001) which is usually played on
> regular cable channels, such as TBS, not the "classic" ones. A number of
> French, German and Japanese films were also translated with "Pussycat"
> in the title, but that's secondary.
>
> And don't forget cartoons, particularly Pizzicato Pussycat.
>
> As for straight "pussy" puns, aside from Are You Being Served ("It
> appears Mrs. Slocum has lost her pussy"), there is also the skit in one
> of the Austin Powers movies (perhaps even more than one)--which is a
> direct riff on Bond (and not just Pussy Galore--"Right idea, wrong
> pussy, Mr. Bond.").
>
>     VS-)
>
> On 3/11/2012 3:14 PM, Ronald Butters wrote:
> > ...
> > What's New, Pussycat? was a 1965 film that is surely still seen on TCM.
> >
> > ...
>
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