Where di "pussy" for "cat" come from. My Merriam-Webster lists it as appearing around 1726, but gives no etymology, and neither does the AHD online. An Indo-Fijian friend staying with me at present tried to tell me that "pussy" is a Hindi word for cat, but "billi" is the only word that I find in the Hindi dictionaries and wordlists I have available, and none of them list "pussy", or any likely progenitor thereof, as a word at all. I figure he's just yanking my chain, but it got me wondering where the word comes from. The etymology of the less-refined, anatomical, meaning of "pussy" is very detailed, but not that for the simple cat's tale.


noho ora mai
http://maxqnzs.com/References.html