Poosie aet dee!

History in a word. The twists and turns in the journey of a word are fascinating. The Shaetlan word poosie (posi, pusi) is pronounced either /pusi/, /pɔzi/ or /pudʒi/ means 'quagmire, swamp, bog, etc'. It's origin is obscure, but it might be an -ie derivation (which makes noun/entities out of verbs/action) of pus, cognate with Sw. pøsa, NyNo. pøyse, Da. puss which all mean 'to swell up' and derive from Proto-Norse *pausian < PGmc. *pus- 'to swell up, inflate, blow'. This is also the ultimate origin of Sw. puss 'puddle' (as in vattenpuss 'water puddle'). It might be that it merged with ON pyttr 'swampy hole, quagmire' (which became Sw./No. putt, Da. pyt, all 'swampy hole, muddy puddle, etc'). It's a bit of a mystery, but this might be an old Norn word which has remained in the language. However, it is improbable that it ever had anything to do with pussy 'cat', which is from Low GM pūs / Du. poes 'cat'.

Picture: Nickolas Titkov (CC BY-SA 2.0)