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Chris -- 2018-04-11
[I tried to look for this here on the Eggcorn site, but I found nothing. If I should be looking differently, please tell me how.]
We have the standard expression Hissy Fit, which is a tantrum. It may be southern USA slang from the first part of the 20th century CE. Hissy may refer to a cat having a tantrum, or it may be a short for Hysterical.
Today, Andrew Leonard, in his great blog “How the World Works” in salon.com, wrote, “Pissy Fit.” I Googled. I got 375 Pissy Fits and 41,500 Hissy Fits.
Pissy Fit apprears to be a conscious 21st century joke on Hissy Fit. One on-line source says a Pissy Fit is a Hissy Fit, as enacted by an effeminate gay man, but other uses, including Andrew Leonard’s use seem generally interchangeable with Hissy Fit.
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Someone with a South African English accent might interpret ‘pissy fit’ as meaning ‘pussy foot’ and I feel the latter may have contributed equally to the development of ‘pissy fit’, despite having an almost opposite meaning.
I should have left it at that, but foolishly checked on ‘hissy foot’ as I was tickled by the notion of an extremity that could deter unwanted cats. Oh yes, it was there, together with hissy feet, hissy feat, hussy fit/foot, pussy fit and pissy foot. Sometimes my grip on reality becomes less than wafer-thin.
Last edited by Peter Forster (2007-11-29 11:04:56)
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Peter! Your ear has locked this thing from another angle. Thanks for your attention to this idea.
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Tom Neely wrote:
Pissy Fit appears to be a conscious 21st century joke on Hissy Fit. One on-line source says a Pissy Fit is a Hissy Fit, as enacted by an effeminate gay man, but other uses…seem generally interchangeable with Hissy Fit.
Stumbling upon this while searching the Eggcorn archives for something else, I’m reminded of a related saying by my late friend Jeanne Ford, an elderly woman from North Dakota: Her term for an especially intense hissy fit was a “shit hissy”. Maybe it’s North Dakota regional slang? I don’t know if it has any connection to “pissy fit”—probably not.
Dixon
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People “get pissy” over something, they “act all pissy.” And of course they get “pissed off” and say “I was so pissed at him” or “I was pissed about that.”
And since one is usually a little pissed off when they throw a hissy fit, it would be sensible to have a pissy fit.
(not to be confused w/ “getting pissed” and its various usages)
(and I’ve often heard the term “shit fit,” and I would personally think a shit fit is more intense than a hissy fit. So a melding of those terms doesn’t seem odd to me)
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I shoulda known that my new entry was already gleaming brightly on a back shelf somewhere in the eggcorn catacombs. Peter has already married fits and hussies (and more) above. Let the following serve as documentation. then.
Two origin stories are out there for the hissy fit. It may be based on hysterics. This one seems unlikely to me. Folk etymology alarm bells are tintinnabulating. It may also imply being hissing mad, like a goose. Other associations are to sissy and pissy, as noted above.
Hussies were originally huswifs, or housewives as we put it today. Then they got impertinent. There are fewer brazen hussies being pert these days than there were 100 years ago, if the ngram is any guide. The hussies have not, however, completely faded away. Saucy minxes are still abroad in the land as well.
A hussy fit looks like a blend of hissy, the brass of hussies, with maybe some fussiness thrown in for good measure.
Thailand’s Got Talent contestant strips off, judge throws a hussy fit
http://whatismatt.com/thailands-got-tal … hussy-fit/
I knew that I had to think of something pretty quick and what I did made her madder than a wet hen and sent her into a hussy fit!
https://books.google.ca/books?id=felxn1 … 22&f=false
A PRESS SEC. HOLDS A CONFERENCE ABOUT IMPORTANT, MEANINGFUL THINGS. THIS GUY THROWS A HUSSY FIT OVER WHAT? ROTFL!
https://twitter.com/vinaytion/status/823651960486117376
I’ll never again ship that way even if buyer insists and throws a hussy fit like my buyer did.
https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Dis … d-p/252856
It is also very familiar to similar disputes between Japan and the United States in the 1980s as the Japanese economy was on the rise and America was having a hussy fit at that time also.
http://windowstorussia.com/why-russia-n … om_24.html
Everytime I have a hussy fit, dh turns round and asks me when am I due to have period even if I have just finished.
He puts all hussy fits down to pmt so he can ignore them! Idiot!
https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being … ltaneously
And as futher evidence of the hysterical angle:
“Mom will have a hyssy fit,†PA said when he dropped a dollop of mayonnaise on the floor.
https://books.google.ca/books?id=vNqHAw … 22&f=false
my Motorola Coca Cola ph chucked a hyssy fit after two years and won’t send SMS’S!
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/592392
Personally i’d prefer one game to keep the league season shorter, however if two games is to be done i would prefer it as i described above. Either it does not really matter than much so it’s up to you. i’m not going to throw a hyssy fit over it.
http://preys-world.com/forum/viewtopic. … &start=165
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