hussy

Meaning

Noun

• A housewife or housekeeper.
• A sexually immoral woman.
• A cheeky or disrespectful girl; a woman showing inappropriate or improper behavior.
• A case or bag for needles, thread, etc.

Origin

• From earlier hussive, hussif, the regular evolution of Middle English huswif, equivalent to house + wife. Modern English housewife is a restoration of the compound (and thus is a ), after its component parts had become unrecognisable through purely regular phonetic change.