hussy

Meanings

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

Etymology

From earlier hussive, hussif, the regular evolution of Middle English houswyf (“housewife”), equivalent to house + wife. Modern housewife is a restoration of the compound (and thus is a doublet), after its component parts had become unrecognisable through regular phonetic change, as well as gradual negative senses and historical factors. The traditional pronunciation of the word is /ˈhʌzi/; the pronunciation with /s/ is a spelling pronunciation.