The Etymology of . . .

[slyc_willie]

Pussy

pussy (n.1) "cat," 1726, diminutive of puss (n.1), also used of a rabbit (1715). As a term of endearment for a girl or woman, from 1580s (also used of effeminate men). To play pussy was World War II RAF slang for "to take advantage of cloud cover, jumping from cloud to cloud to shadow a potential victim or avoid recognition."

pussy (n.2) slang for "female pudenda," 1879, but probably older; perhaps from Old Norse puss "pocket, pouch" (compare Low German puse "vulva"), but perhaps instead from the cat word (see pussy (n.1)) on notion of "soft, warm, furry thing;" compare French le chat, which also has a double meaning, feline and genital. Earlier uses are difficult to distinguish from pussy (n.1), as in:

The word pussie is now used of a woman [Philip Stubbes, "The Anatomie of Abuses," 1583]

But the absence of pussy in Grose and other early slang works argues against the vaginal sense being generally known before late 19c., as does its frequent use as a term of endearment in mainstream literature, as in:

"What do you think, pussy?" said her father to Eva. [Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," 1852]

Pussy-whipped first attested 1956. (citation unknown)

So, if you're writing a period piece set before the late 19th century, you might want to re-think using the term "pussy" in your story unless you're talking about a cat.

 

[slyc_willie]

Cock

cock (n.1) "male chicken," Old English cocc "male bird," Old French coc (12c., Modern French coq), Old Norse kokkr, all of echoic origin. Old English cocc was a nickname for "one who strutted like a cock," thus a common term in the Middle Ages for a pert boy, used of scullions, apprentices, servants, etc.

A common personal name till c. 1500, it was affixed to Christian names as a pet diminutive, as in Wilcox, Hitchcock, etc. Slang sense of "penis" is attested since 1610s (but compare pillicock "penis," from c. 1300); cock-teaser is from 1891. A cocker spaniel (1823) was trained to start woodcocks. Cock-and-bull is first recorded 1620s, perhaps an allusion to Aesop's fables, with their incredible talking animals, or to a particular story, now forgotten. French has parallel expression coq-à-l'âne.

The latter part -- as a common personal name and as a pet diminutive -- I find interesting.

 

[slyc_willie]

Fuck

fuck (v.) "to have sexual intercourse with" (transitive), until recently a difficult word to trace in usage, in part because it was omitted as taboo by the editors of the original OED when the "F" entries were compiled (1893-97). Johnson also had excluded the word, and fuck wasn't in a single English language dictionary from 1795 to 1965. "The Penguin Dictionary" broke the taboo in the latter year. Houghton Mifflin followed, in 1969, with "The American Heritage Dictionary," but it also published a "Clean Green" edition without the word, to assure itself access to the public high school market.

Written form attested from early 16c.; OED 2nd edition cites 1503, in the form fukkit, and the earliest attested appearance of current spelling is 1535 ("Bischops ... may fuck thair fill and be vnmaryit" [Sir David Lyndesay, "Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits"]). Presumably it is a more ancient word, but one not written in the kind of texts that have survived from Old English and Middle English. Buck cites proper name John le Fucker from 1278, but that surname could have other explanations. The word apparently is hinted at in a scurrilous 15c. poem, titled "Flen flyys," written in bastard Latin and Middle English. The relevant line reads:

Non sunt in celi
quia fuccant uuiuys of heli

"They [the monks] are not in heaven because they fuck the wives of [the town of] Ely."

Fuccant is pseudo-Latin, and in the original it is written in cipher. The earliest examples of the word otherwise are from Scottish, which suggests a Scandinavian origin, perhaps from a word akin to Norwegian dialectal fukka "copulate," or Swedish dialectal focka "copulate, strike, push," and fock "penis." Another theory traces the Modern English verb to Middle English fyke, fike "move restlessly, fidget" (see fike) which also meant "dally, flirt," and probably is from a general North Sea Germanic word (compare Middle Dutch fokken, German ficken "fuck," earlier "make quick movements to and fro, flick," still earlier "itch, scratch;" the vulgar sense attested from 16c.). This would parallel in sense the vulgar Middle English term for "have sexual intercourse," swive, from Old English swifan "to move lightly over, sweep" (see swivel). But OED remarks that these "cannot be shown to be related" to the English word. Liberman has this to say:

Germanic words of similar form (f + vowel + consonant) and meaning 'copulate' are numerous. One of them is G. ficken. They often have additional senses, especially 'cheat,' but their basic meaning is 'move back and forth.' ... Most probably, fuck is a borrowing from Low German and has no cognates outside Germanic.

Chronology and phonology rule out Shipley's attempt to derive it from Middle English firk "to press hard, beat." The unkillable urban legend that this word is an acronym of some sort (a fiction traceable on the Internet to 1995 but probably predating that), and the "pluck yew" fable, are results of ingenious trifling (also see here). The Old English verb for "have sexual intercourse with" was hæman, from ham "dwelling, home," with a sense of "take home, co-habit." French foutre and Italian fottere seem to resemble the English word but are unrelated, descending rather from Latin futuere, which perhaps is from PIE root *bhau(t)- "knock, strike off," extended via a figurative use "from the sexual application of violent action" [Shipley; compare the sexual slang use of bang, etc.].

Fuck was outlawed in print in England (by the Obscene Publications Act, 1857) and the U.S. (by the Comstock Act, 1873). The word continued in common speech, however. During World War I: "It became so common that an effective way for the soldier to express this emotion was to omit this word. Thus if a sergeant said, 'Get your ----ing rifles!' it was understood as a matter of routine. But if he said 'Get your rifles!' there was an immediate implication of urgency and danger." [John Brophy, "Songs and Slang of the British Soldier: 1914-1918," pub. 1930]. The legal barriers against use in print broke down in mid-20c. with the "Ulysses" decision (U.S., 1933) and "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (U.S., 1959; U.K., 1960). The major breakthrough in publication was James Jones' "From Here to Eternity" (1950), with 50 fucks (down from 258 in the original manuscript).

The abbreviation F (or eff) probably began as euphemistic, but by 1943 it was regarded as a cuss word in its own right. In 1948, the publishers of "The Naked and the Dead" persuaded Norman Mailer to use the euphemism fug. When Mailer later was introduced to Dorothy Parker, she greeted him with, "So you're the man who can't spell 'fuck' " [The quip sometimes is attributed to Tallulah Bankhead]. Hemingway used muck in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1940). Related: Fucked; fucking. Fuck-all "nothing" first recorded 1960. Verbal phrase fuck up "to ruin, spoil, destroy" is attested from c. 1916. A widespread group of Slavic words (such as Polish pierdolić) can mean both "fornicate" and "make a mistake." Fuck off attested from 1929; as a command to depart, by 1944. Egyptian legal agreements from the 23rd Dynasty (749-21 B.C.E.) frequently include the phrase, "If you do not obey this decree, may a donkey copulate with you!" [Reinhold Aman, "Maledicta," Summer 1977].


I was one of those who bought into the theory that "F-U-C-K" was at one time a supposed acronym meaning For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (especially after the release of the Van Halen album by that name), but I always wondered.

I can attest to the use of the German "fick," because a common insult when I was growing up in Germany was "fick du!" ("fuck you!")

 

[oggbashan]

The Graffiti in the Lupanar (brothel) at Pompeii suggest that there could be a Latin origin for fuck as Fut.. (written Fvt...)

Extract from a Stanford publication on the Lupanar Graffiti:

2191: above 2193, to the right
FVTVJ
I fucked

2192: below 2186
X V I I K JVL
HERMEROS
CVM PHILE
TERO ET CAPHI
SO HIC FVTV
ERVNT
17 days before the Kalens of July
Hermeros with Phileteros and Caphisus fucked here
(the date would be in mid-June)

2193: below 2189
ARPHOCRAS HIC CVM DRAVCA
BENE FVTVJT DIINARJO
Arphocras here with Drauca
fucked well (for a) denarius

 

[slyc_willie]

The Graffiti in the Lupanar (brothel) at Pompeii suggest that there could be a Latin origin for fuck as Fut.. (written Fvt...)

I have read that. Not that exact extract, but the theory and evidence behind it. I visited Pompeii as a boy; I'd love to go back now and see the place with adult eyes.

 

[AMoveableBeast]

Cool thread.

 

[slyc_willie]

Slut

slut (n.) c. 1400, "a dirty, slovenly, or untidy woman," according to OED "Of doubtful origin," but probably cognate with dialectal German Schlutt "slovenly woman," dialectal Swedish slata "idle woman, slut," and Dutch slodde "slut," slodder "a careless man," but the exact relationship of all these is obscure. Chaucer uses sluttish (late 14c.) in reference to the appearance of an untidy man. Also "a kitchen maid, a drudge" (mid-15c.; hard pieces in a bread loaf from imperfect kneading were called slut's pennies, 18c.).

Specific modern sense of "woman who enjoys sex in a degree considered shamefully excessive" is by 1966. Meaning "woman of loose character, bold hussy" is attested from mid-15c., but the primary association through 18c. was untidiness. Johnson has it (second definition) as "A word of slight contempt to a woman" but sexual activity does not seem to figure into his examples. Playful use of the word, without implication of messiness or loose morals, is attested by 1660s:

My wife called up the people to washing by four o'clock in the morning; and our little girl Susan is a most admirable slut, and pleases us mightily, doing more service than both the others, and deserves wages better. [Pepys, diary, Feb. 21, 1664]

Compare playful use of scamp, etc., for boys. Sometimes used 19c. as a euphemism for bitch to describe a female dog.

There is a group of North Sea Germanic words in sl- that mean "sloppy," and also "slovenly woman" and, less often, "slovenly man," and that tend to evolve toward "woman of loose morals." Compare slattern, also English dialectal slummock "a dirty, untidy, or slovenly person" (1861), variant of slammacks "slatternly woman," said to be from slam "ill-shaped, shambling fellow." Also slammakin (from 1756 as a type of loose gown; 1785 as "slovenly female," 1727 as a character name in Gay's "Beggar's Opera"), with variants slamkin, slammerkin. Also possibly related are Middle Dutch slore "a sluttish woman," Dutch slomp, German schlampe "a slattern."


I find the italicized passage above very interesting, from the current point of view of how "slut" is used. Sounds like the beginning of an Incest story . . . .

 

[legerdemer]

The Graffiti in the Lupanar (brothel) at Pompeii suggest that there could be a Latin origin for fuck as Fut..

[/I]

And from there, most Latin languages have a derivative.

 

[oggbashan]

I have read that. Not that exact extract, but the theory and evidence behind it. I visited Pompeii as a boy; I'd love to go back now and see the place with adult eyes.

I have only visited Pompeii once, in 1960. I'm not sure I'd like to go back because I couldn't match the experience.

My mother and I were 1st class passengers on a liner going to Australia. Those 1st class passengers who wanted to (and paid) could go to Pompeii while the liner was in Naples picking up passengers. The afternoon before arriving in Naples we had an illustrated talk given by one of the ship's officers. That talk had been scripted by the chief archaeologists at Pompeii.

The down side? We had to be up before dawn and miss breakfast on board. We were given a packed breakfast to eat on the coach.

The up side? We arrived at Pompeii hours before the normal opening to the general public. We were met by the site director and his staff. The group of about 20 people had Pompeii and the English speaking guides to themselves for three hours. We were split into three groups and never saw any of the other groups until we met up back at the coach.

Because we were such a small group we were taken into areas not normally open to the public then e.g. the workshops where the archaeologists were working on newly found artefacts. We were given cotton gloves and allowed to examine and handle things - not normally permitted.

Technically I was too young to see the erotica, then concealed behind curtains, but as I was over six feet tall, no one queried my age. I was very interested, and since I had been studying Latin for seven years, I could read most of it for myself, even the abbreviations.

We left Pompeii just as the first of the general public were being admitted.

We went on to lunch in Amalfi, stunned by the amount of information we had absorbed in a few hours. The previous day's talk had helped us understand and interpret what we were being shown at Pompeii.

Going back? From accounts by friends and relations who have visited since 2000, there is more to see but the crowds and queues reduce the quality of the experience.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

I have one set in Old Salem and ran across the same research. Correct pussy would be an anachronism. It was an illuminating education!

Fuccant is a great word I have to say.

 

[49greg]

Fuck

fuck (v.) "to have sexual intercourse with" ....



The unkillable urban legend that this word is an acronym of some sort (a fiction traceable on the Internet to 1995 but probably predating that),...

I was one of those who bought into the theory that "F-U-C-K" was at one time a supposed acronym meaning For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (especially after the release of the Van Halen album by that name), but I always wondered.

I can attest to the use of the German "fick," because a common insult when I was growing up in Germany was "fick du!" ("fuck you!")

I also heard the explanation that it was an acronym, in my case it was "Fornication Under Consent of the King" which sounded too clumsy to be true. I was in college at the time and the guy who was telling that kept up the theme that the word therefore didn't apply to extra-marital sex, but only to sex sanctioned by the Monarch - i.e. married sex, and therefore not a "bad" word. This was in the late sixties.

edited: Oh yeah, and Swive. I love swive. It sounds very Anglo-Saxon, and not neccesarily in a bad way. "I swived with Mary-Jo this weekend and she walked bow-legged the rest of the week."

It's kind of like the when Radar O'Reilly (in the TV series of Mash) finally got "Slaked".

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Rather more light-heartedly, I posted a humorous piece on the etymology of sex terms that seemed to be enjoyed by quite a few.


https://www.literotica.com/s/my-cute-stumpy-thick-end?page=1


I still believe that 'pussy' came to America with the Irish immigrants. (My Bostonian Irish friends seem to agree.) 'Puss' was old Irish for 'lips' and seems to me the best explanation for the US adoption. 'Chatte', a French pussy, has no connection.

 

[slyc_willie]

I have only visited Pompeii once, in 1960. I'm not sure I'd like to go back because I couldn't match the experience.

My mother and I were 1st class passengers on a liner going to Australia. Those 1st class passengers who wanted to (and paid) could go to Pompeii while the liner was in Naples picking up passengers. The afternoon before arriving in Naples we had an illustrated talk given by one of the ship's officers. That talk had been scripted by the chief archaeologists at Pompeii.

The down side? We had to be up before dawn and miss breakfast on board. We were given a packed breakfast to eat on the coach.

The up side? We arrived at Pompeii hours before the normal opening to the general public. We were met by the site director and his staff. The group of about 20 people had Pompeii and the English speaking guides to themselves for three hours. We were split into three groups and never saw any of the other groups until we met up back at the coach.

Because we were such a small group we were taken into areas not normally open to the public then e.g. the workshops where the archaeologists were working on newly found artefacts. We were given cotton gloves and allowed to examine and handle things - not normally permitted.

Technically I was too young to see the erotica, then concealed behind curtains, but as I was over six feet tall, no one queried my age. I was very interested, and since I had been studying Latin for seven years, I could read most of it for myself, even the abbreviations.

We left Pompeii just as the first of the general public were being admitted.

We went on to lunch in Amalfi, stunned by the amount of information we had absorbed in a few hours. The previous day's talk had helped us understand and interpret what we were being shown at Pompeii.

Going back? From accounts by friends and relations who have visited since 2000, there is more to see but the crowds and queues reduce the quality of the experience.

I am officially jealous, Ogg.

I still would like to take my wife there some day (among a few dozen other places). Maybe we'll get lucky and go at some odd time when there aren't many other tourists.

 

[slyc_willie]

Rather more light-heartedly, I posted a humorous piece on the etymology of sex terms that seemed to be enjoyed by quite a few.


https://www.literotica.com/s/my-cute-stumpy-thick-end?page=1


I still believe that 'pussy' came to America with the Irish immigrants. (My Bostonian Irish friends seem to agree.) 'Puss' was old Irish for 'lips' and seems to me the best explanation for the US adoption. 'Chatte', a French pussy, has no connection.

The fun thing about etymology is that it isn't exact. You might be right about the origin, I might be right, or we could both be wrong.

In the absence of definitive proof, all we have are our preferences.

I do prefer the German origin, myself.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

But 'Puss' is so non germanic.

 

[slyc_willie]

But 'Puss' is so non germanic.

You wouldn't think so if you had lived there.

 

[slyc_willie]

Sex

sex (n.) late 14c., "males or females collectively," from Latin sexus "a sex, state of being either male or female, gender," of uncertain origin. "Commonly taken with seco as division or 'half' of the race" [Tucker], which would connect it to secare "to divide or cut" (see section (n.)). Meaning "quality of being male or female" first recorded 1520s. Meaning "sexual intercourse" first attested 1929 (in writings of D.H. Lawrence); meaning "genitalia" is attested from 1938. Sex appeal attested by 1904.

For the raw sex appeal of the burlesque "shows" there is no defense, either. These "shows" should be under official supervision, at the least, and boys beneath the age of eighteen forbidden, perhaps, to attend their performance, just as we forbid the sale of liquors to minors. [Walter Prichard Eaton, "At the New Theatre and Others: The American Stage, Its Problems and Performances," Boston, 1910]

Sex drive is from 1918; sex object is 1901; sex symbol is 1871 in anthropology; the first person to whom the term was applied seems to have been Marilyn Monroe (1959). Sex therapist is from 1974.


Thank you, D.H. Lawrence (not that I'm surprised)