A calzone is a pizzussy

January 8, 2023 10:37 AM

“The selection of the suffix -ussy highlights how creativity in new word formation has been embraced online in venues like TikTok,” Zimmer said. “The playful suffix builds off the word pussy to generate new slang terms. The process has been so productive lately on social media sites and elsewhere that it has been dubbed -ussification.”

The suffix "-ussy" is the 2022 American Dialect Society word of the year.

From Dark Brandon to Chief Twit: runners up and other categories here.

Much more context from Vulture: Bussy is bustin’ out all over social media. From Andrew Garfield’s Spadussy to Trader Joe’s Citrusy spices, whole chunks of the internet are being -ussified. Adding -ussy to the end of words — any word — has been a fun obsession of the extremely online, and fluctuates between being praised as high art and criticized as yet another meme done to death. [....] “-ussy could indicate the female’d/feminized/femme or the masculine’d/masculinized/ butch, depending on context,” said Leap. “That is quite ‘queer,’ in the sense that term need not have a fixed or stable reference, and neither need the references to gender or sexuality with which the term is associated.”

An academic analysis from Michael Dow, Université de Montréal: In this paper, I present another such class of words from a recent language game, pussy blends (e.g., (Margaret) Thatcher + pussy > thatchussy), and examine their potential contribution to the study of informal word-building processes. [.......] In sum, “pussy blends” are more likely to fall into the category of secreted affixation, in which case -ussy would have become, however ephemerally, a fractomorpheme (cf. Watergate > -gate). Further supporting this is the seemingly regular semantic operation transforming the meaning of “pussy,” in the same way that the meaning of “Watergate” is transformed into “scandal connected with x involving high-ranking people” (Fradin, 2000).

posted by Rumple (89 comments total)

Huh, well I had my suspicious before, but this confirmed it. I got old.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 10:52 AM on January 8, 2023 [63 favorites]

Real respect for the emeritus professor who was ambushed by this concept and took it very much in stride.
posted by threementholsandafuneral at 11:04 AM on January 8, 2023 [14 favorites]

What Pink Fuzzy Bunny said. I was completely oblivious to this whole phenomenon until now.

Thanks Rumple (I think…).
posted by rpfields at 11:04 AM on January 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

From now on I will only be reading what I, personally, write.
posted by Splunge at 11:06 AM on January 8, 2023 [60 favorites]

No.
posted by tiny frying pan at 11:12 AM on January 8, 2023 [11 favorites]

I guess that makes us Mussy, or possibly MussyFussy. The young people will be lining up to join!
posted by taz at 11:13 AM on January 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

Ok, I have now read the linked articles and can definitely confirm my thanks, especially to the professor who referred to Willem Dafoe's "large point of reference" and the writer who then linked to this highly amusing (but off-topic) article.
posted by rpfields at 11:15 AM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Stop trying to make fetchussy happen, it’s not happening.
posted by mhoye at 11:21 AM on January 8, 2023 [14 favorites]

Indeed, the suffix "-ussy" is used in inventive ways on my fave gay horror podcast.
posted by Kitteh at 11:32 AM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Gonna be real, every time I read the word bussy/boy pussy I assumed it was the transmasc equivalent of girldick. Unsure whether to be sad or happy that a lot fewer people than I thought were talking about trans guys’ vaginas.
posted by brook horse at 11:33 AM on January 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

I've been assuming it comes from drag, a la, "serving cunt." The Vulture article points to Drag Race as mainstreaming that kind of queer slang
posted by little onion at 11:38 AM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

My partner has been referring to his nostrils as his nussy since COVID testing took off. We're so ahead of the curve on this.
posted by wakannai at 11:39 AM on January 8, 2023 [18 favorites]

Oh God
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:40 AM on January 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

The inadvertent casualty of this fad is “citrusy”.
posted by notoriety public at 11:45 AM on January 8, 2023 [30 favorites]

mousy? jealousy?
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 11:49 AM on January 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

"Stop Adding Ussy to Words"

now it makes sense
posted by philip-random at 11:54 AM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

“Citrussy” was actually the first use I saw of this linguistic quirk, a few years ago on an… interesting gif on Tumblr.
posted by brook horse at 11:55 AM on January 8, 2023

This all sort of sounds gussied up
posted by cubeb at 12:00 PM on January 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

Is "citrusy", as in "redolent of citrus fruit", really part of this trend? I've heard that term used as a flavor description for years.
posted by maxwelton at 12:01 PM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'm calling bullshussy on account of unpronounceability
posted by phooky at 12:03 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Hocussy
Pocussy
POTUSSY
Pioussy
Virussy
Mucussy
Sinussy
Humussy
Ficussy
Righteoussy
Corpussy
Exodussy
Venoussy
Hiatussy
Uterussy
Cunnilingussy
Impecunioussy
Tuberculoussy
Precalculussy
Fantabulussy
Opprobrioussy
Melifluoussy
Hippocampussy
Carnivoroussy
Insalubrioussy
Overcautioussy
Cirrocumulussy
Luminiferoussy
Preposteroussy
Ovoviviparoussy
Splendiferoussy
Hydrocephalussy
Instantaneoussy
Sanctimoniussy
Lactobacillussy
Multitudinoussy
Superstitioussy
Cytomegalovirussy
Vicissitudinoussy
Ultrafastidioussy
Pulchritudinoussy


If enough uncool old people jump on this trend quickly, we can kill it before it spreads. Feel free to play.
posted by MrVisible at 12:15 PM on January 8, 2023 [19 favorites]

"mr grumpy pants getting all fuss-bucket-ussy over there"
posted by NoThisIsPatrick at 12:19 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

3,4 methelynedioxylmethamphetussy
posted by some loser at 12:19 PM on January 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

Dang it why does the new slang have to be so naughty
posted by Going To Maine at 12:21 PM on January 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

Like kids, it’s gonna be even worse when the adults start using ussy everywhere
posted by Going To Maine at 12:21 PM on January 8, 2023 [7 favorites]

So when you go down a tv tropes rabbit hole, is that a tv tropes russy? Or maybe a tvtrussy?
posted by rikschell at 12:26 PM on January 8, 2023

Citrussy as part of the trend is mocking “misspellings” of citrusy (though it’s actually an acceptable alternate spelling, AFAIK).

I found the post I was thinking of (not as old as I thought, mixed the age up with another use of the gif on a different post), for reference.
posted by brook horse at 12:31 PM on January 8, 2023

I guess that makes us Mussy, or possibly MussyFussy.

MetaFussy?

Gonna be real, every time I read the word bussy/boy pussy I assumed it was the transmasc equivalent of girldick. Unsure whether to be sad or happy that a lot fewer people than I thought were talking about trans guys’ vaginas.

I've been reading "bussy" the same way and hadn't picked up on the broader usage the FPP links are describing.
posted by Dip Flash at 12:37 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I've just been thinking of my own bussy for a couple years now when I'm using the bidet or whatever, just more dignified than ass or butt hole.
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:45 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Weird that Dow's paper is the only thing here that mentions the "one thicc bih" meme back in 2017 using the Ditty app that introduced the world to the Babadook's babussy, Sonic the Hedgehog's Hedgie, etc.
posted by JauntyFedora at 12:49 PM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Well, this certainly took my brain in an odd direction (with apologies to A Taste of Honey):

If you're thinkin' you're too old to bussy
Boy oh boy have I got words for you
Everybody here tonight must bussy
Let me tell ya, you are no exussy to the rule

Post on up, all the words
'Cause we're gonna bussy-ussy-ussy
'Till you just can't bussy no more
Ah bussy, bussy no more
You can't bussy no more
Ah bussy, bussy no more
Listen to the suffix
posted by indexy at 12:56 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

I had never looked it up, so tbqh I always thought the b in bussy was butt.
posted by Pitachu at 12:58 PM on January 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

Also, I refuse to read the last article out of sheer spite for making me consider "Thatchussy."
posted by Pitachu at 1:01 PM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

Mefussy, surely.

At any rate, Reddit recently bumped Metafilter out of first place on my most frequently visited sites list, so despite being a 40-something dude I can confirm widespread use is months old news. September, at least.
posted by Ryvar at 1:02 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

This is Jussy to Say

I have posted
the memes
that were in
the tiktox

and which
you were probably
saving
for tumblr

Forgive me
they were delussy
so thicc
and so bold
posted by Rumple at 1:13 PM on January 8, 2023 [24 favorites]

Am I right in thinking this is more often pronounced /-ʌsi/ (like "fussy") and less often /-ʊsɪ/ (like "pussy")? For example I think "bussy" is /bʌsi/ instead of /bʊsɪ/. Wait no I just looked it up and I guess I'm wrong about bussy, so says Wiktionary anyway.

Probably many of these formations are only seen in writing so maybe the pronunciation is kind of indeterminate. Still I think I have heard the /-ʌsi/ reading (maybe even of "bussy"). I at least feel some kind of preference for that pronunciation in cases other than "pussy" even though obviously they are derived from "pussy."
posted by grobstein at 1:18 PM on January 8, 2023

I wonder if this means more or fewer sales for Stussy, and what their name might be the ussy of?
posted by Jon Mitchell at 1:28 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

look upon my wussy, ye mussy, and despussy
posted by phooky at 1:29 PM on January 8, 2023 [29 favorites]

I was complaining to my wife and a friend this summer that I'd been punished for watching a Gideon the Ninth themed TikTok by receiving a "oh you like facepaint content huh" trial balloon in my algo of the incredibly cursed Clown Thirst Trap genre, and in this context mentioned the word "clussy", and then had to explain this entire linguistic development to them from scratch.
posted by cortex at 2:00 PM on January 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

> I guess that makes us Mussy, or possibly MussyFussy.

MetaFussy?

Mefussy, but nobody can agree how to say it.
posted by cortex at 2:07 PM on January 8, 2023 [9 favorites]

Pitachu: Also, I refuse to read the last article out of sheer spite for making me consider "Thatchussy."

I wish that one would remain a forgotten Bond film.
posted by k3ninho at 2:10 PM on January 8, 2023 [6 favorites]

For those of us who don’t exactly keep up with modern culture: is this supposed to be a good connotation or a bad connotation?

Cos it doesn’t sound good, tbh.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 2:12 PM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

What a terrible day to be able to read
posted by MengerSponge at 2:18 PM on January 8, 2023 [39 favorites]

Stussy refers to one's style + ussy, surely
posted by potrzebie at 2:27 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

For those of us who don’t exactly keep up with modern culture: is this supposed to be a good connotation or a bad connotation?

I don't feel like it has an intrinsic valence there. Most of the semantic content is going to be derived from the specific context, other than "also you're thinking of pussy now too btw" which itself is gonna depend on context I guess. Think of it like "-ish": it's just a suffix, it doesn't tell you how to feel about the x that is x-ish. Except also you might confuse or embarrass your mom, depending on your mom.
posted by cortex at 2:31 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

There are days I’m sad I’m aging out of the mainstream culture, and then there are days like today.
posted by thecaddy at 2:32 PM on January 8, 2023 [17 favorites]

I wish that one would remain a forgotten Bond film.
Oddly, the only place I hear this -ussy construction is on a Bond podcast.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 2:44 PM on January 8, 2023

You sound like you’ve suddenly started speaking gushy Latin, as in the superlative form of adjectives:

https://latin-dictionary.net/grammar/adjectives/declensions/comparisons

Cf Simplicissimus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicius_Simplicissimus?wprov=sfti1

Now say Simplicissimussy
posted by bad grammar at 3:01 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

superlatives

Simplicissimus
posted by bad grammar at 3:13 PM on January 8, 2023

Claude Debussy is unavailable for comment.
posted by SPrintF at 3:30 PM on January 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

So...The Wah Watussy will make a comeback now?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:32 PM on January 8, 2023

I don’t even know how tou use/say this. Christ, I’m going to need a medalert bracelet now.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:39 PM on January 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

It seems to be used similar to Snoop Dogg's "-izzle" suffix? Or am I wrong.
posted by hippybear at 3:43 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

My 'oral history' of ussyfication is that it started as a fun casual way of referring to like a boy pussy by gay men/trans guys and then there was bussy the bus character and after that ussyfication as a joke that is always in some way about something's conceptual (nongendered) pussy. I've never seen it as a random fun suffix and I wonder if its being used that way and I haven't seen it or if people are seeing it but lacking the prior context for it to make sense as a joke? Like I guess its funny first because its referring to something in a surprising way (eg carussy for car exhaust) and then going from there building on that joke by subverting expectations and absurdistly referring to something that has no conceptual pussy (eg windowussy).
I don't think there really is a metafussy, except if maybe a beloved porn actor died and the . would become a series of metafussies in honour of that.
posted by mosswinter at 3:49 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Never heard of this until right now. Put your phone down and go outside.
posted by pthomas745 at 3:51 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

A buddy cop film where agents of the American Dialect Society and the Académie Française have to get along and work together to solve crimes.
posted by Reyturner at 3:53 PM on January 8, 2023 [19 favorites]

I am trying to work up an outrage about how this is going to negatively impact people trying to talk about the challenges of improving public transport priority in our streets. It's clear we need to make them more bussy, but I can't have a discussion for the tittering from the back row.

If people tell me this is a corner case, I'm all ready to school them on intersectionality.
posted by pulposus at 3:55 PM on January 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

I've seen queer people use this in nerdy fandom spaces for years. But I'm not really into it since they always use it to imply the hole you're bottoming with, and most of the time with submissive connotations-- like i see it more often used on subby femboys and such, and not so much on power bottoms or stone butches or tops. That is, why don't they call a pussy a "putt" (pussy butt) or a mouth a "mottom" (mouth bottom) seeing as how everyone has butts, or why aren't tops fucking people with their "picks" (pussy dicks) or "dlits" (dildo clits) or any other combination? So it's bothered me.
posted by picklenickle at 4:33 PM on January 8, 2023 [9 favorites]

If I dig a hole, climb in, and pull dirt over myself, would someone mind tamping it down so I can't change my mind and try to re-enter the world? Thanks in advussy.
posted by nfalkner at 5:11 PM on January 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

The -ussy suffixization trend definitely broadly predates, at least as Very Online memetic usage, the appearance of Bussi the Eyebrow-Raising Bus Mascot; I agree that it all feels fundamentally derived from the pre-generalized “bussy” usage but the appearance of Bussi was more of a late-breaking cherry on top than any kind of catalyst.
posted by cortex at 6:04 PM on January 8, 2023

While reading all these -ussy words I was prouncing them like fussy ( ˈfəsē ), but then thought well, they should be prounced like pussy ( ˈpo͝osē ). That makes it much easier to say them although -ussy is normally pronounced -əsē so my brain just wasn’t getting it.
posted by waving at 6:47 PM on January 8, 2023

Cattywumpussy
posted by MrVisible at 7:21 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I remember when the word of the year was "goblin mode". Things were good then
posted by Merus at 7:30 PM on January 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

What do you call the trend of leaving the last syllable or more off of words--convo, obvi, etc.? I keep running across this usage and it drives me nuts. I picture someone so lazy that adding one more syllable is JUST SO DIFFICULT! On the other hand, I always know what they're saying...
posted by etaoin at 7:40 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

I’ve devised (i mean, I’m sure I didn’t invent it, but I have been annoying family and friends with it for some time) a new way of speaking in shorthand and perhaps you can help it spread for me.

In any two word phrase, take the first syllable of the first word, and make the second word rhyme with it also as a single syllable.

For example, butter knife = but nut. Back door = back dack. Front door = front dunt. You can either incorporate the phrases into conversation or use them to repeat back things said to you in the form of a question. (i.e When asked “Can you grab me the tape dispenser?” you respond by saying “Tape dape?”

Who’s with me?
posted by davey_darling at 7:49 PM on January 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Tape dispussy.
posted by grobstein at 7:55 PM on January 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

I had encountered this previously, in the context of people who enjoyed anal sex, talking about 'bussy' (butt/boy/backdoor + pussy).
It then started some linguistic drift; as someone mentioned above - 'when I got my first COVID test, the nurse jammed that nasal swab in there and I felt like she'd violated my 'nussy'. (nose + pussy)
Then it got jokey: male tree rodents chasing females around during mating season, in pursuit of 'squssy', etc.

Now 'prefix + ussy' has become a linguistic pun format, similar to the routines Tim Kazurinsky used to do on SNL: "be careful who you have sex with when Himalayan mountain climbing, or you might get...Sherpes." or "a bite from a rabid Rabbi can give you Oy-Vey-bies; an infected crazed turn of the century American poet can transmit Edna-St.-Vincent-Millay-bies".
posted by bartleby at 8:20 PM on January 8, 2023

Cattywumpussy
Cinematographers know about heightening tension or a sense of disorientation by adding a diagonal tilt to the camera, known as the 'Dutch Angle'.
When you you use this technique in making pornographic films, that's 'cattywampussy'.
[or I dunno, maybe yer snatch is all crooked]
posted by bartleby at 8:29 PM on January 8, 2023

In the 80s while in high school my friends and I would suffix words with -age, so they rhymed with damage..
Cramps = crampage
Bone (sex) = bonage
Scarf (eat) = scarfage
Sleep = sleepage
Etceterage

Was that a thing or was it just us?
posted by waving at 8:48 PM on January 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

What a terrible day to be able to read
posted by MengerSponge

Infinussy.
posted by aws17576 at 9:00 PM on January 8, 2023

Was that a thing or was it just us?

It was you and also Pauly Shore, unless you went to high school with Pauly Shore in which case you're all good.
posted by cortex at 9:27 PM on January 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

Was that a thing or was it just us?

We did that also and sometimes still do
posted by Rumple at 9:30 PM on January 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I remember "-age".
posted by inexorably_forward at 10:34 PM on January 8, 2023

I'm pretty sure it'd be MetaFiltussy...
posted by Golem XIV at 10:36 PM on January 8, 2023

I'm so confussyd.
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:57 PM on January 8, 2023

I remember a child I met in the late 1960s who once referred to a security blanket as an Ussie from that of the character Linus Van Pelt in Peanuts. It was more pronounced Uhssy than Oohsy. And she grew up to sing for the Dynette Set. So make of that what you will.
posted by y2karl at 2:47 AM on January 9, 2023

What do you call the trend of leaving the last syllable or more off of words--convo, obvi, etc.?

Abbreving.
posted by Dysk at 3:56 AM on January 9, 2023 [7 favorites]

I, for one, am delighted. They put their whole lingussy into this decision.
posted by a hat out of hell at 4:07 AM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

Okay I get how the bussy is boy/butt pussy and, Lord help me, how a phone's charge port is its phussy. How is a calzone a pizza pussy? Are there regions where a calzone isn't a pizza empanada (but baked)?
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:14 AM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

What do you call the trend of leaving the last syllable or more off of words--convo, obvi, etc.?

Australian English?
posted by Merus at 5:36 AM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

If they had called it the suffix of the year, it wouldn’t be less dumb but at least it would be more correct. A suffix isn’t a word. Ugh society is doomed isn’t it?
posted by caution live frogs at 5:44 AM on January 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Suffussy of the year
posted by Ansible at 7:12 AM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

How is a calzone a pizza pussy?

I mean, topologically, you bite off one end and bob's your uncle. But for god's sake let it cool down first.
posted by cortex at 7:53 AM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

I'd been punished for watching a Gideon the Ninth themed TikTok

I'm absolutely nuts for the Locked Tomb series, despite being way older than the author and most of the fandom and I happily research all the memes and allusions I don't get but to date have been stumped and a little unnerved by the frequent references in the fandom to chussy.

Which I understand to be chipmunk pussy and from there my brain just stops working.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 8:05 AM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Harsh realmussy.
posted by credulous at 9:34 AM on January 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Weird that Dow's paper is the only thing here that mentions the "one thicc bih" meme back in 2017 using the Ditty app that introduced the world to the Babadook's babussy, Sonic the Hedgehog's Hedgie, etc.

Yeah, my memory of one thicc bih definitely involves Wariussy.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:55 AM on January 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

It seems to be used similar to Snoop Dogg's "-izzle" suffix?

OMG, Hippybear, I was just rushing in to say this.

I associate -izzle more with Del tha Funky Homosapien, though.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:58 PM on January 9, 2023

I honestly didn't know it had spread in usage but it feels like "bussy" has been a gay thing for years. At least three or four. It comes from the Black gay community, and as usual, that origin has been disappeared.

I've heard it used on rare occasions to refer specifically to trans men, but I would never automatically associate the two, and I'm a trans guy. I definitely do not.
posted by nezlamnyy at 4:36 PM on January 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

After management said that we needed to better leverage our Umbraco installation, it took some restraint to not reply "we need to put our whole CMuSsy into it".
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 6:24 AM on February 2, 2023