To think this was a weird thing to call my DD

[PeppaPigTastesLikeBacon]

Just been to my corner shop with DD who is 6mo. I got talking to the lady who worked there and I mentioned that we are applying for nurserys at the moment and the woman said to DD (in that baby talk voice) "your going to have such fun with all the boys, you hussy you"
Now I'm not sure if it means something different to people of an older generation but I always thought a hussy was just another term for a slapper. I'm a bit about it

okay... totally bizarre way of talking to a baby there lol but definitely well-meant as you know. she's implying your baby is beautiful and that's why the boys will be around her etc etc etc... it's a compliment. a weird, batty compliment.

jollygoose I think has been a 50/50 split. I'm glad it doesn't mean slapper to everyone but I'm not sure I could move away from thinking it means slapper.
I want upset by it as I know a 6mo can't be a slapper I just found it very strange

jollygoose. I wouldn't worry too much, no matter what you say it'll be wrong, so not much point in trying to get it right! 😁

(Hinny, is just a friendly northern word for a female.)

My mum once said someone's baby was bonnie. The woman stormed off looking really cross. Locally bonnie did not mean beautiful/pretty - it meant fat. Could it be something like that?

LilacSpunkMonkey - stop trying to make "fetch" happen!

I doubt if the woman meant any harm, but what a weird thing to say to a baby. Even if "hussy" does mean something different to her (and it means tart/flirt here) the comment about boys is off. So depressing and boring that people immediately relate little girls to their potential impact on boys...

Hinny is a north-east term of endearment - has been since the mid-19th century at least.

You must have been taken a bit aback OP, but it did make me . People do say some really odd things. At least she never called her a little tart

When I was a child, older people might just say 'wee hussy' as a synonym for 'wee girl' (I'm from NI), without there being any other real implications.

YANBU, I'd be pretty taken aback at that. It's bad enough when you get the "Oh you'll be flirting with all the boys" rubbish, but at least you can grimly ignore it and hope that sort of crap dies out. I've never heard 'you hussy' to mean anything other than 'promiscuous', though, and coupled with the boy statement it doesn't sound like she's using it as a euphemism for 'pretty' or 'delightful' or whatever other innocent explanations there are. I'd have struggled not to respond with "you what?" to see exactly what she meant there.

I'm an older mumsnet poster too, and in my childhood it was used as an affectionate endearment. This was in the North of England, and when the world appeared a lot more innocent than it does now. I do cringe, however, when I hear (as someone mentioned earlier) someone saying
"sexy boy" or "sexy girl" of a small baby or child. It sounds much worse than hussy to me. I can't help it. I'm old.

I hate it when people refer to their children as sexy. Sexy is what I would say about DP or Johnny Depp

It's a cack-handed way of saying she's pretty. it's old-fashioned and a bit crap, but nicely meant, I suppose.

Someone I vaguely knew came round to meet DD1 when she was about a week old. She plucked her out of her Moses basket without permission, waking her up (I had an interesting night after that, grr) and announced, "You smell so SEXY!" Now that was weird.

People do say some odd things to babies. I haven't heard it as a term of endearment but maybe it is in some areas.

Hinny from North and Scotland derives from honey. I also had an Irish friend that used it a lot. She had also lived in Newcastle.

My mum uses the word hussy in a sort of affectionate way, it's almost a term of endearment. I've seen people look a bit shocked before

I remember someone calling my 5 month old son a bully because he took a teething ring from another child.

Stereotyping starts really early

I think it's the equivalent to boys being called heartbreakers.

I hear that kind of thing said more about boys. Any boy who smiles at a woman is immediately labelled a 'ladies man' by a certain type.

I would imagine she meant "charmer" rather than "slapper". Even though hussy does mean slapper.

I call my 6mo DS a tart because he is always flirting with his beautiful smile and big blue eyes

My Nana used to call me a 'wee hussy' when I was young. She did it when I'd managed to persuade her, my grandad or one of my siblings to do something (often make me hot chocolate as I wasn't allowed!). It meant cute and so nice they couldn't say no. Certainly didn't mean slapper here.

It's funny when words are so different in meanings in different places. I remember my Nana being absolutely mortified when my Grandad called the baby of one of her relatives 'bonny' because it didn't mean pretty where Nana and her relatives grew up.

She might have just had a case or 'word-vomit' though - you know when you think one thing and say another word halfway through...

I'm so glad this is a thing, I do it all the time. I accidentally called my 19mo DD a 'funny bitch' the other day. Meant to say funny britches. I was mortified as my ndn was also in the garden and am now convinced they think I call her a bitch all the time!!

OP I think it's a fucking odd thing to call a baby but I'm sure she couldn't possibly have meant anything by it.
I would have just smiled and nodded.

dontbuy I nearly spat my coffee out at that

Dontbuy, there is an infamous mumsnet post in classics somewhere where mum tried to call her son a 'whiny tinker' in the doctors surgery I think, and she called him a 'tiny wanker' by mistake!

Yes I remember that, Alpaca. That'll be me in the future. Argh...