Cunt

Cunt is an English term that refers to the human female genitals. In modern English the word vagina is considered more polite, though strictly speaking this word only refers to a specific part of the genitals. In Oxford, London, and other English towns and cities in the Middle Ages there were roads named "Gropecunt Lane" where prostitutes plied their trade; these roads were renamed by the Victorians.

Usage

"Cunt" is also used as a term of abuse: in American English, it is mainly directed at women, and tends to imply that the named person is extremely nasty and unpleasant in a way that bitch does not imply. It is generally considered the most offensive description one can attribute to a female. It is also sometimes directed at men as a slur, as it implies a deficit of masculinity. In British English it is mainly directed at men, and is considered an insulting swear-word, implying that the named person is extremely obnoxious and malicious. The word is generally considered to be more offensive than cock, prick, and other vulgar words referring to the penis.

Like many vulgar words, cunt owes some of its "popularity" in that usage to its phonetic characteristics. Its monosyllabic nature, combined with the hard K sound at the beginning and the sharp T at the end make it well-suited for use as an epithet or interjection.

North Americans generally find the word more offensive than the British and Australians; in Britain, unlike in America, "cunt" can be used as a jovial term of endearment in very limited specific contexts. Most Britons however do find the word extremely objectionable.

With the growing acceptance of the word fuck in print and broadcast media, cunt is sometimes described as the last genuinely unprintable and unsayable sexual word in mainstream American media; this is less true in the UK, where in recent years it has received rare use in newspapers and even on radio and television, while remaining virtually taboo. In January 2005, the BBC faced controversy after it broadcast Jerry Springer - The Opera on British television. The performance included the phrase "cunting, cunting, cunting, cunting cunt" (a description of the Devil). This usage - more common in Britain than in America - reflects the word's status as the "next" taboo expletive after the increasingly-tolerated fuck; it is increasingly being used as a direct substitute for the f-word, taking on analagous forms and being used in the same syntatical manner, despite the fact that it is - when used literally - a noun rather than a verb.

A known euphemism for the word, originating within the London area, but now having more widespread use, especially within the south of England, is the phrase 'see you next Tuesday'; C (see) U (you) Next Tuesday. An example of usage would be: "Oh that bloke is such a see you next Tuesday".

Feminist viewpoints

Some feminists seek to claim cunt as an acceptable word for the female genitalia, though not usually in its use as an insulting label for a person, which many feminists despise as being the degrading equivalent to nigger. Such feminists claim that the lack of any comparable term for the male genitals demonstrates a profound cultural contempt, not only for females, but for their very femininity. Defenders of the word point out that terms for male genitals are used in an equivalent insulting way, though the degree of equivalence differs between English speaking cultures (examples include "you prick"; "you dick-head"; "utter balls" [British]; etc). Many women prefer the somewhat more acceptable and contextually "affectionate" term pussy.

History

Cunt is an old Germanic word, and appeared as cunte in Middle English and kunta in Old Norse. It has cognates in most Germanic languages, such as the Swedish and Norwegian kunta†, Frisian kunte, and Dutch kut (while kont in Dutch means bum, buttocks, gender-neutral, but generally derogatory; 'stomme kont' means 'dumb arse'). Its original derivation is an Old Germanic stem kunton. See gonads, genital, gamete, genetics, gene, and gynaecology. Relationships to similar-sounding words such as the Latin cunnus (vulva), French con, and Spanish coño have not been conclusively demonstrated. Other Latin words related to cunnus: cuneatus, wedge-shaped; cuneo v. fasten with a wedge; (figurative) to wedge in, squeeze in, leading to English words like cuneiform and cunnilingus.

In dutch, kont is the rear end. It is interesting that when such words are carried across water by sailors, the meaning changes from the front to behind or vice versa. Case in point is the word "fanny" and the US/UK meanings.

It is worth quoting a scholarly reference: Eric Partridge, Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, New York: Greenwich House, Distributed by Crown Publishers, Inc. MCMLVIII, MCMLIX, MCMLXI, MCMLXVI, ISBN 0517414252, page 135.

cunt: ME cunte (occ counte), recorded once in OE: OFris kunte, akin to ON kunta, MLG-LG kunte, D kunte, MD conte; also to MF (and F) con, OF varr cun, cunne; like It conno, from L cunnus, s cun-. The presence of t in the Gmc has long puzzled the etymologists: even Walther von Wartburg aligns the Gmc kunta, kunte, with the L cunnus only under the aegis of a question-mark; for cunnus, E & M adduce the syn Gr kusthos and the Per kun, the posterior, but they omit to cite the Hit kun, tail; for kusthos, Hofmann proposes an orig *kuzdhos, with extended r *kus- or *keus- and with true IE r *ku- or *keu-, to hide or conceal, and he adduces L cutis, skin which has s cut-, extension of r *cu-, *ku-, the skin being a coverer.

But is it not probable that the word is of common Medit stock: Eg offers qefen-t, vagina, vulva, akin to the n-lacking Eg ka-t, vagina, vulva, mother, women collectively. There are also several Sem congnates. The basic idea is prob 'essential femineity'.

Cunt has been in common use in English since at least the 13th century. It did not appear in any major dictionary of the English language from 1795 to 1961 (when it was included in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, with the comment "usu. considered obscene"). Its first appearance in the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1972, which cites the word as having been in use since 1230 in what was supposedly a current London street name of "Gropecuntelane".

Although Shakespeare doesn't use the word explicitly (or with derogatory meaning) in his plays, he still has fun with it, using wordplay to sneak it in. In Act III, Scene 2, of Hamlet, as the castle's residents are settling in to watch the play-within-the-play, Hamlet asks Ophelia, "Lady, shall I lie in your lap?" Ophelia of course, replies, "No, my lord." Hamlet, feigning shock, says, "Do you think I meant country matters?" Then, to drive home the point that the accent is definitely on the first syllable of country, Shakespeare has Hamlet say, "That's a fair thought, to lie between maids' legs." Also see Twelfth Night (Act II, Scene V): "There be her very C's, her U's, and her T's: and thus makes she her great P's." Finally, in Henry V, when Katherine is learning English, she is appalled at how the English say "gown," which in her accent was written by Shakespeare as "count."

In a similar fashion, the British band The Sex Pistols recorded a song entitled '"Pretty Vacant", pronounced pretty vay-khunt.

Double act Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are often credited with having made the word more acceptable and accessible in the UK in the 20th Century through their Derek and Clive dialogues. In one sketch called "This Bloke Came Up To Me," the word is used 31 times in the course of two minutes.

The word quaint, possibly from the Latin for 'known', has also been used in historical times in much the same way as cunt and probably had a similar pronunciation. A notable early use of quaint was from Chaucer in his Miller's Tale "Pryvely he caught hir by the queynte". The Wife of Bath also uses this term, which suggests that although surely vulgar the word was not thought obscene: "For cert�s, old� dotard, by your leave/You shall have quaint� right enough at eve".

The Ashley Book of Knots ISBN 0385040253, by Clifford W. Ashley, frequently uses the word cuntline to refer to the spiral groove between strands of twisted cordage. The author never defines the term, but assumes that he would be understood. The book was first printed in 1944 and would have been censored at that time if the word was considered offensive.

† Kunta is not a word in either modern Swedish or modern Norwegian, and there is no evidence to suggest that it was ever used to mean the same as the word cunt.

Testimonials

"I'm a really big fan of cunt over words like pussy, and especially, vagina. The word has this great guttural sound that lets you get right into it. Pussy and vagina are really dirty words - you only ever hear really greasy men saying things like that. Cunt lets women be vulgar without being derogatory."

• Calista Flockhart, at a staging of The Vagina Monologues

Related Topics

• Sexual slang

External links

• The Etymology of Sexual Slang Terms
• Cunt: A Cultural History
• Love Is A Cunt: Contributor site discussing the likeness of love to a cunt

Further reading

• Inga Muscio, Cunt: A declaration of Independence [Seal Press]
• Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets [Harper & Row]
• Cunt, a 1999 novel by Stewart Home
• Lady Love Your Cunt, 1969 article by Germaine Greer and 1993 song by UK band SMASH

Uses in popular culture

• Cunt is also an album by Australian grindcore band Blood Duster.
• Just Like A Cunt and A Cunt Like You, two songs by UK power electronics pioneers Whitehouse
• I Might Be A Cunt, But I'm Not A Fucking Cunt, a 1998 song by Australian band TISM
• Cunt was a fictional documentary about a hipster/media wannabe, Nathan Barley, listed in TVGoHome, a spoof television listings website. It was later formed the basis of a Channel 4 sitcom, Nathan Barley.
• Cunt as a word is used by the australian artist kevin bloody wilson in several songs like; You can't say cunt in canada and I had an absolute cunt of a day. frozenhenk

Other meanings

• A cunt splice is a form of knot used in rigging on ships.
• The term cuntline is used by Clifford W. Ashley in his classic "The Ashley Book of Knots" ISBN 0385040253 to denote the groove between adjacent strands of twisted cordage or rope.

See Also

• Derek and Clive