The historical association between the words “cathouse” and “pussy”

The link is the promiscuous nature of the female urban cat when in heat.

Link between cathouse and pussy
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Link between cathouse and pussy. Individual images in the public domain. Montage by PoC.

You have probably made the association between the words “cathouse” and “pussy”. If you haven’t, this is it. ‘Cathouse’ is a slang word to describe a brothel. It’s been used like that for several centuries because prostitutes have been called cats since the 15th century.

The reason is perhaps obvious namely that stray street cats attract many tomcats when on heat and they mate with them one after the other. As mentioned in a previous post it’s gang rape of a sort.

Records tell us that in the year 1401 men were warned of the risks of chasing the cattis tailis, the cat’s tail. This explains why the word “tail” is sometimes used as slang for female genitals. A similar use for the word “pussy” dates from the 17th century.

Useful links
Anxiety - reduce it
FULL Maine Coon guide - lots of pages
Children and cats - important

My thanks to Dr Desmond Morris’s encyclopaedia Cat World are clarifying this.

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Useful tag. Click to see the articles: Cat behavior

Note: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified.

Michael Broad

Hi, I'm a 74-year-old retired solicitor (attorney in the US). Before qualifying I worked in many jobs including professional photography. I love nature, cats and all animals. I am concerned about their welfare. If you want to read more click here.

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