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From: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Subject: Proto-World Pussy-etymon (Was: Re: Ruhlen's "On ..." (Ib)) 
Message-ID: <DxLM9C.544@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Reply-To: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Organization: Seattle Community Network
References: <514i40$qoi@halley.pi.net> <514dml$m13@halley.pi.net>
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 02:43:59 GMT
Lines: 75


In a previous article, mcv@pi.net (Miguel Carrasquer Vidal) says:

 (quoting Ruhlen's "On the Origin of Languages")

>"[...] etymology 21 [PUTI 'vulva'] [...] "PUT/female genitals" [...]"

I don't know any Proto-World speakers, so I haven't been able to get an 
opinion from the horse's mouth about the degree of fuzziness (phonetic or 
semantic) separating these two Proto-World forms, but ...

I had always assumed that the English term "pussy" in this sense was a 
semantic backyard of "pussy" in the sense of "(pussy)cat", the feline 
sense being primary, but...

Looking at a list of potential ModE reflexes of Proto-World PUT(I) (drawn 
up as suggested without attention to any sound-change laws, in fact, 
assuming for the sake of the argument that sound changes are anomalies 
rather than legal requirements)

vulva
beaver
cunt
twat
bush
muff
pussy
foo-foo/fou-fou
box (Tok Pisin uses this one doesn't it?)
belly
honey-pot
shame
private( part)s
pudend-um/-a (muliebris)
pubic region
genital-ia/-s
sex([ual] organs)
ass
tail
vagina
(love) tunnel
(fuck)hole
(birth) canal
nether lips
labia (majora/minora)
mount (of Venus)
mons (Veneris)
clit(oris)
...
...
and doubtless there are many others my limited vocabulary doesn't embrace 
(yet)...

the only one that looks like a sure-fire dead ringer for a Proto-World 
reflex is pussy, so now I'm wondering whether my previous opinion of its 
etymology/semantic history needs rethinking.  Anybody out there really 
expert in this etymology?

And then ... though this involves a little more semantic fuzziness than 
the foregoing ... PUT(I) might also solve the mystery of the origin of 
Esperanto' perplexing 

putino = whore (where the -in- is part of the root, not the expectable
         female suffix)

Je vous en prie (what I'm not sure).

Not *entirely* tongue-in-cheek...


--
Liland Brajant ROS'                "Sed krom se iuj el la  homoj  malsategas,
P O Box 30091                      kiel do la socio povas posedi strukturon?"
Seattle, WA 98103 Usono            -Gulivero (Ted Danson) en la nova televida
Tel. (206) 633-2434                 versio,  citita  en  "Baptist Peacemaker"
