Puss for face works well here in Murrica,
tambien.
Hal
Escucha, ve y calla, si quieres vivir en paz.
Listen, watch and be silent, if you want to
live in peace.
--Spanish proverb
Halvard Johnson
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On Sep 27, 2007, at 11:26 AM, Peter Cudmore wrote:
> Well I suppose many under-25-year-olds have never seen a hedge --
> not the
> old-fashioned hedges out in the countryside where pussywillow used
> to grow.
>
> Of course, up here in Scotland, puss is also a word for 'face', or
> maybe it
> is specifically the mouth. Since the context is often violent, such
> as a
> smack in the puss, I suppose male faces are in the frame more than
> female
> ones. We're aye democratic, though.
>
> P
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>> Behalf Of Douglas Barbour
>> Sent: 27 September 2007 15:46
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Snap, 26 September 07 : Rite of Spring
>>
>> well I dont know, but I think many would still say 'puss' & 'here
>> puss
>> puss,' & I have to wonder if the obscene use of 'pussy' isn't the
>> usage
>> that's old-fashioned, so many other terms including the famous four
>> letters having come to the fore, so to speak....
>>
>> & pussy-willow, certainly.
>>
>> (where's the rodent when we need him?)
>>
>> Doug
>> On 26-Sep-07, at 11:49 PM, kasper salonen wrote:
>>
>>> printed proof, certainly not. and I doubt whether even corpora would
>>> reveal my take to be true. but it's my intuition as a native
>>> language
>>> user, and as a representative of a younger generation than I'd
>>> assume
>>> your 'control group' comes from. :) in the case of the catkin, I can
>>> understand if the word is still in frequent use because it's a
>>> name of
>>> a plant or the part of a plant, I believe that biological names are
>>> slower to fade out because so many are rooted in colloquial &
>>> regional
>>> variants that are specialised in a way.
>>>
>>> ask anyone under 25 what the first thing is that comes ot their
>>> heads
>>> when you say the word 'pussy'. many would definitely say 'pussycat',
>>> but I think a lot of language users would feel that the description
>>> you gave of a catkin, 'very soft and silky', can be used for
>>> something
>>> only slightly more controversial.
>>>
>>> I'll ruminate on the finnish word, get back to you :)
>> Douglas Barbour
>> 11655 - 72 Avenue NW
>> Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
>> (780) 436 3320
>> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>>
>> Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
>> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
>>
>> When you combine two unique voices
>> it creates a third, phantom voice.
>>
>> Emmy Lou Harris
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