Speaking of The Efficiency Expert...or Ah! Bowakawa!

So I decided to listen to a bit more of The Efficiency Expert while I did my stationary biking hour today. Usually I watch something whilst biking, as the visual + audio provides greater opportunities for distraction than mere audio, but I was pretty hooked on that novel and wanted to have some more of it right quick. I hadn't gotten very far into my routine, though, before I heard this line:

"And so he continued permitting himself to be battered up four or five times a week at the hands of the pussy Mr. Brophy."

Um...did he say pussy??? I finished up the stretches that I was doing and got on the computer to do a little text check courtesy of Project Gutenberg. 

Yep. He did indeed say pussy.

Well, that's not very nice, is it? But it is kind of funny. 

Ha ha funny.

My search also revealed that I could look forward to this line--

"Jimmy hit him whenever and wherever he elected to hit, and he hit him hard, while Brophy, at best only a second or third rate fighter, pussy and undertrained, was not only unable to elude the blows of his adversary but equally so to land effectively himself."

--in the same chapter, so I've got at least one more pussy to look forward to. And now, of course, I'm going to have to go to the Oxford English Dictionary to investigate this whole pussy matter. After I do my stationary biking. Maybe.

Later...

I managed to restrain myself and finished the biking routine before getting back to my pussy investigation. Alas, there are no more pussies to be found in The Efficiency Expert beyond the two I named. But my etymological investigations turned up some interesting stuff.

To wit...

Apparently pussy has been with us for quite some time. I found references to it being used in the 1580s as a term of endearment (?) for females...and as a term of antipathy for men (specifically, and not surprisingly, an accusation that they were effeminate). My investigations also revealed to me that an alternate term for pussy-whipped was...and I swear that I am not making this up...cunt-beaten. Man, I love etymology. 

Oh, I also learned that the Agatha Christie book The Thirteen Problems makes reference to pussy or pussies four times--my favorite of which is the simple ejaculation, "And I don't like pussies." Man, this shit is as funny as the Joker Boner references. (And if that doesn't ring any bells, do yourself a favor and Google Joker Boners. I know my sense of humor is not very refined, but I laughed until I had tears in my eyes. Even just thinking about that shit makes me laugh.)

So I didn't really find what I was looking for--how pussy was at one time an acceptable term meaning effeminate--but it makes sense given the fact that the term was not considered vulgar for a pretty long time...and that it was associated with effeminate behavior from way back when. That's good enough for me.