I was having a conversation in the office today around the secretarial pool cubicles. I called someone a pussy. One of the assistants gets all bent out of shape and starts spouting off how I am being sexist and demeaning and making her feel unsafe. She threatened to report me to HR.

I told her to calm down and asked what she found offensive. She said "are you kidding me? By using that word, you are implying that all women are weak and you are making reference to female genitalia."

I then replied that she is the one with a dirty mind and needs to take a class on etymology. When used as an insult "pussy" is a derivation of the latin "pusillanimous" meaning weak-willed or afraid of danger. "pusil" = small and "animous" = will.

She still reported me to H.R. I had a fun chat with them as well.

[Edit: Going to post this higher up. I wasn't calling the person a vagina. When people say" John is a pussy because he wont do x," they mean that "John is a coward"; not "John resembles meat flaps."]

[Edit 2: To those who can't read, I did not call a co-worker a pussy. I was insulting an opposing attorney (i.e. someone who works at a different law firm) to one of my co-workers. One of our prissy legal assistants took offense.]