pooty
English
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Possibly a shortening of poontang.
Noun
[edit]pooty (countable and uncountable, plural pooties)
- (colloquial) The female genitalia; the vulva or vagina.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:vulva
- 2006 March 26, Chris Adrian, “A Better Angel”, in The New Yorker[1], New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-14:
- Things started to go wrong between the angel and me after Cindy Hacklight showed me her pooty in seventh grade. Cindy had made a sort of cottage industry of showing her pooty to anyone—girl or boy—who would give her five dollars, a large sum back then, before high-school inflation.
- 2003, Helen Reddy, “Long Hard Climb”, in John Morthland, editor, Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader, New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books, →ISBN, page 81:
- What everybody doesn't know is the hot pulsating goodies Helen Reddy's got to offer up. Cum here woman, do your duty; drop them drawers and gimme some pooty!
Etymology 2
[edit]Representing a dialectal or colloquial pronunciation of pretty.[1] Compare purty. The adverb is derived from the adjective.[2]
Adjective
[edit]pooty (comparative pootier, superlative pootiest)
- (dialectal) Pretty.
- 1857, The Atlantic Monthly/Volume 1, No.1, Sally Parson's Duty
- "Bless your pooty little figger-head, Sally! I don't know as 'tis, but suthin' nigh about as bad is a-comin...
- 1857, The Atlantic Monthly/Volume 1, No.1, Sally Parson's Duty
Adverb
[edit]pooty (not comparable)
- (dialectal) Pretty (somewhat, fairly).
- 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:
- "Well, you see, it 'uz dis way. Ole missus — dat's Miss Watson — she pecks on me all de time, en treats me pooty rough, but she awluz said she wouldn' sell me down to Orleans.
Etymology 3
[edit]Uncertain. Possibly from pooty (“pretty”), although that term is attested slightly later.[3]
Noun
[edit]pooty (plural pooties)
- (England, dialectal, Northamptonshire) Cepaea nemoralis, one of the most common species of land snail in Europe, with a dark brown lip to its shell.
- Synonym: grove snail
- 1980, Gillian Nelson, Charity's Child, London: W. H. Allen, →ISBN, page 45:
- Do 'e remember that nest then? and the pooty shells I collected for you, and all our playings?
Usage notes
[edit]- Chiefly used by or in reference to the writings of English poet John Clare (1793–1864).[3]
References
[edit]- ^ “pooty, adj.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
- ^ “pooty, adv.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 “pooty, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
