The word **puss** is one of English's most familiar informal names for a cat, yet its origin remains genuinely uncertain. It appeared in English texts in the early 1500s and has cognates in languages that are not closely related, making its history a puzzle.
## Uncertain Origins
The standard dictionaries are cautious. The OED notes cognates in Dutch (*poes*), Low German (*Puus*), Irish Gaelic (*pus*), and Lithuanian (*pūzė*), but declines to assign a definitive source. Several theories compete:
**Onomatopoeia or expressive origin**: The sound 'pss' or 'puss' is naturally suited to calling a cat — it is quiet, sibilant, and can be produced without opening the mouth wide. Many cat call-words across languages share these phonetic features. The word may have arisen independently in multiple languages as an imitation of the sound people use to summon cats.
**Wanderwort**: A word that spreads through cultural contact rather than genetic inheritance. If farmers and traders across Europe used a similar sound to call their cats, the word could have spread without being inherited from a common ancestor language.
**Late Latin connection**: Some have proposed a link to Late Latin *pūsus* (boy, little one), but the semantic leap from 'boy' to 'cat' is unexplained.
The honest answer is that no one knows for certain.
## English Usage
In English, *puss* has served as both a common noun and a proper name. It is used to address a cat directly ('here, puss!'), to refer to a cat informally ('a fat old puss sleeping on the mat'), and as a name — Puss was a conventional cat name in English from the 16th century onward.
The diminutive *pussy* (meaning a small cat) dates to the same period. *Pussycat* appeared by the early 18th century. The nursery rhyme 'Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?' was published in 1805 but is thought to be older.
## Puss in Boots
The word's most enduring cultural appearance is in the fairy tale *Le Chat Botté* (The Booted Cat), published by Charles Perrault in 1697. The English translation, *Puss in Boots*, established the character's name. The story — a clever cat who secures wealth and a noble marriage for his impoverished master through trickery — was already old when Perrault wrote it down; similar tales appear in Italian collections from the 16th century.
## Beyond Cats
*Puss* has also meant 'face' or 'mouth' in informal English and Irish English, possibly from a different root (Irish *pus* meaning 'lip, mouth'). The slang sense 'sourpuss' (a grumpy person) derives from this facial meaning, not the feline one.
The word's dual life — as a cat name of uncertain origin and a face-word of possible Irish provenance — illustrates how short, expressive words resist tidy etymological classification. *Puss* remains common, affectionate, and etymologically elusive.