pussy," adj. = weak; effeminate; cowardly; unmanly; soft or easy eno

[neil]

on 8/19/05 5:44 PM, Laurence Horn at laurence.horn at YALE.EDU wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: pussy," adj. = weak; effeminate; cowardly; unmanly; soft or
> easy         eno
>
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>> Current "duff' usage in UK is largely confined to an expression indicating
>> pregnancy = 'up the duff'.
>>
>> Victorian UK usage was as both buttocks and female genitals.
>
> Not in Farmer & Henley FWIW.
>
>>
>> An American book, possibly by an English author, has the female genital
>> sense in the 1970s:
>> 'He slid towards me, pinning me in the corner. His hand forced its way
>> between my thighs, fingers touching the hairs around my duff.'
>> --Lu Stack, 'Anybody's Girl', Bee-Line Books, NY [1970s, page ref lost]
>
> Not a typo for "muff"?  To be sure, the muff is often taken to
> include such hairs, but Grose (1785) already lists "MUFF, the private
> parts of a woman", and I'm sure the precise details of the
> geographical nomenclature have undergone sporadic variation ever
> since.
>
>>
>> I see that the US also has "duff" as penis, hence "duff-flogger" = male
>> masturbator.
>>
>> -- Neil Crawford
>
> That's a new one on me.
>
> L

'... actually there is no one accepted sexual pattern in man's nature. Laws
don't help to clear the air. In Washington, D.C., there is a law against
masturbation that could lead a duff-flogger to a prison term.'
--Stephen Longstreet [ed], 'Nell Kimball: My Life as a Madam', Granada,
London, 1981 [page ref lost]

FWIW Britsh naval slang for ejaculate is 'come one's duff'; here 'duff' =
pudding, itself slang for semen.

--Neil Crawford