Inflamed

Twisty Faster is clearly an awesome human being, but in a recent blog entry of hers there's this footnote, and I am forced to take exception. The footnote reads as follows:

*Actually, she did not say “purulent.” She said “pus-y,” but that word does not, for some reason, exist in written English.

Oh, sure it does. It's spelled "pussy". It rhymes with "hussy", unless you are one of those people who pronounces "hussy" as if it were spelled with zeds instead of esses, in which case it rhymes with "fussy", or half of "tussie-mussie" (which is a Victorian bouquet).

Yes, I know. It looks like "pussy", the one that means "cat" or whatever. And? We have lots of words in English that are pronounced two different ways with the same spelling. "Polish" and "polish", for instance. Sure, it's a little confusing, but that's English for you. It's just something we have to get used to.

You don't have to like "pussy" pronounced to rhyme with "hussy" and meaning "purulent", and you certainly don't have to use it in the written or spoken language, but there's no point in pretending that it doesn't exist in written English, because it does.