different between sissy vs missy

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?si/
• Rhymes: -?si
• Homophone: cissy

Etymology 1

From sis +? -y.

Noun

sissy (plural sissies)

1. (derogatory, colloquial) An effeminate boy or man.
2. (derogatory, colloquial) A timid, unassertive or cowardly person.
   • 1963, Robert Smith, Pro Football: The History of the Game and the Great Players (page 144)

     This was all part of football and if any man was such a sissy he could not stand it, then he had better seek the sidelines.

3. (BDSM) A male crossdresser who adopts feminine behaviours.
   • 2018, Paul Zante, Sissy Dreams: Motel Sissy (page 4)

     I realised I still held my normal male clothes and dropped them to the floor under the desk, out of the way. […] Would it hurt? Yes, I knew it would from watching videos of sissies being spanked by their dominant mistresses.

4. (colloquial) Sister.
   • 2008, Rita T. Kohn, William Lynwood Montell, Always a People: Oral Histories of Contemporary Woodland Indians

     Her seven-year-old brother Justin sat on my lap beside her casket. I explained to him why we were staying with his sissy. He wouldn't leave; he stayed, too. He kissed her, touched her hand, told her he would miss her.

Synonyms

• (effeminate man or boy): cot-quean (obsolete), janegirl (“effeminate boy”) (rare); see also Thesaurus:effeminate man
• (timid or cowardly person): milquetoast, nancy, pussy, quiche-eater; see also Thesaurus:milksop
• (sister): sis

Antonyms

• non-sissy
• unsissy

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

sissy (comparative sissier, superlative sissiest)

1. (derogatory) Effeminate.
   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift [Avon ed., 1976, p. 26]:

     Frontiersmen were never afraid of poetry. It was Big Business with its fear of femininity, it was the eunuchoid clergy capitulating to vulgar masculinity that made religion and art sissy things.

   • 2000, Jeffery Deaver, Manhattan Is My Beat (revised edition), Bantam Books, ?ISBN, page 173:

     […] she’d decided the wrapping paper was too feminine. It had a viney pattern that wasn’t anything sissier than you’d see in the old Arabian Nights illustrations. But Richard might think they were flowers.

2. (derogatory) Cowardly.

Translations

Etymology 2

Likely onomatopoetic, perhaps related to French pipi (“urine”). Compare piss; wee-wee.

Noun

sissy (uncountable)

1. (childish, colloquial) Urination; urine.

Translations

Verb

sissy (third-person singular simple present sissies, present participle sissying, simple past and past participle sissied)

1. (childish, colloquial) To urinate.

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?s.i/
• Rhymes: -?si

Etymology 1

From miss +? -y.

Noun

missy (plural missies)

1. A young female, or miss; as a term of mild disparagement, typically used jokingly or rebukingly.

2. (Singapore, Malaysia) A female nurse.

Descendants

• ? Maori: Mihi

Translations

Adjective

missy (not comparable)

1. Girlish; effeminate; sentimental.
2. Of, or pertaining to, female clothing or clothing sizes.

Etymology 2

Noun

missy (uncountable)

1. (mineralogy) Alternative form of misy

Anagrams

• mysis