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Cunt is an English language vulgarism referring to the vulva or vagina and, more generally, the pubis from the mons veneris to the perineum. The earliest citation of this usage, circa 1230, is in the Oxford English Dictionary, referring to the London street known as "Gropecunt Lane".
Cunt is also used as a derogatory epithet in referring to either sex. The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines "cunt" as "an unpleasant or stupid person," whereas Merriam-Webster defines the term as a disparaging term for a woman. Meanwhile, according to the Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English, the word refers to "a despicable man." The usage of cunt as vulgar insult is a relatively recent development.
This word for the female genitalia dates back to the Middle English period, c.1325. Its exact origin is unknown, but is related to the Old Norse kunta, a word with cognates in several other Germanic languages. From the Proverbs of Hendyng, a manuscript from sometime before 1325:[citation needed]
- Ȝeue þi cunte to cunnig and craue affetir wedding.
(Give your cunt wisely and beg after the wedding.)
The term also has various other uses (see usage below).
Etymology
Cunt derives from a Germanic word (Proto-Germanic *kunton), which appeared as kunta in Old Norse. The Proto-Germanic form itself is of uncertain origin.[1] In Middle English it appeared with many different spellings such as queynte, which did not always reflect the actual pronunciation of the word. There are cognates in most Germanic languages, such as the Swedish, Faroese and Old Norwegian kunta, West Frisian kunte, Dutch kut, and German kott. While kont in Dutch refers to the buttocks, kut is considered far less offensive in Dutch speaking areas than cunt is in the English speaking world. The etymology of the Proto-Germanic term is disputed. It may have arisen by Grimm's law operating on the Proto-Indo-European root *gen/gon = "create, become" seen in gonads, genital, gamete, genetics, gene, or the Proto-Indo-European root *gwneH2/guneH2 (Greek gunê) = "woman" seen in gynaecology. Relationships to similar-sounding words such as the Latin cunnus (vulva), and its derivatives French con, Spanish coño, and Portuguese cona, 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 such as cuneiform (wedge-shaped).
Vulgarity and offensiveness
In certain circles the word is considered merely a common profanity with an often humorous connotation. For example, in Australia and Ireland the word may be used as a colloquial term of endearment (e.g., in such phrases as "You're a funny cunt!" or "Daft cunt!"). This custom does not apply in the United States of America, where the word applies to females only. It is almost never a term of endearment and generally considered extremely offensive. In other countries, there is an increasing number of instances of the term both in print and in speech, usually in derogatory reference to a person rather than to the anatomical part.[citation needed]
Feminist viewpoints regarding offensiveness
Some feminists seek to reclaim cunt as an acceptable word for the female genitalia, in the interest of removing the power associated with its use. Some abhor the word and regard it, based on its more recent connotation, as degrading and misogynistic. It has also been suggested that vagina is equally offensive as it literally means "scabbard" in Latin [2], and is in any case incorrect as a term for the external female genitalia.
Some reject an exclusively negative connotation as inherently sexist towards women, and claim that insult is an inappropriate usage for a word used to epitomise femaleness.
Critics of the word claim that the lack of any comparable term for the male genitalia demonstrates a profound cultural contempt, not only for specific females, but for women in general. Defenders of the word argue that terms for male genitals are used in an equally insulting way, though they claim the degree of this "equivalence" differs between English speaking cultures (examples include cock, prick, dickhead, "utter balls" (or bollocks) [British], etc). However, these words generally are not held to be as offensive or taboo as cunt. Despite these criticisms, there is a small movement amongst some feminists that seek to reclaim cunt as an honorific, in much the same way that queer has been reclaimed by LGBT people[3]. Proponents include Inga Muscio in her book, Cunt: A Declaration of Independence[4] and Eve Ensler in her monologue "Reclaiming Cunt" (from "The Vagina Monologues").
The word was similarly reclaimed by Angela Carter who used it in the title story of "The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories"; a female character describing female genitalia in a pornography book: “her cunt a split fig below the great globes of her buttocks”.[5]
More recently, Germaine Greer, who had previously published a magazine article entitled Lady, Love Your Cunt[6], discussed the origins, usage and power of the word in the BBC series Balderdash and Piffle, which examines the etymology of many English words and phrases, most especially those whose origins have limited written evidence (required to be included as citations in the Oxford English Dictionary). Greer suggests at the end of the piece that there is something precious about the word, in that it is now one of the few remaining words in English that still retains its power to shock.[7]
Usage: pre-20th century
Cunt has been in common use in its anatomical meaning since at least the 13th century. While Francis Grose's 1785 A Classical Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue listed the word as "C**T: a nasty name for a nasty thing"[8] 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 "Gropecunte Lane." It was however also used before 1230 having been brought over by the Anglo-Saxons, originally not an obscenity but rather a factual name for the vulva or vagina. "Gropecunt Lane" was originally a street of prostitution, indicating a middle ages red light district. It was normal in those times for streets to be named after the goods available for sale therein, hence the prevalence in cities having a medieval history of names such as "Silver Street", "Fish Street", and "Swinegate" (pork butchers). In some locations, the former name has been Bowdlerised, as in the City of York, to the more acceptable "Grape Lane".[9]
The word appears several times in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c. 1390), in bawdy contexts, but it does not appear to be considered obscene at this point, since it is used openly. A notable use is from the Miller's Tale "Pryvely he caught her by the queynte." The Wife of Bath also uses this term, "For certeyn, olde dotard, by your leave/You shall have queynte right enough at eve . . . What aileth you to grouche thus and groan?/Is it for ye would have my queynte alone?" In modernised versions of these passages the word "queynte" is usually translated simply as "cunt" [10][11]. However, in Chaucer's usage there seems to be an overlap between the words "cunt" and "quaint" (possibly derived from the Latin for "known"). "Quaint" was probably pronounced in Middle English in much the same way as "cunt." It is sometimes unclear whether the two words were thought of as distinct from one another. Elsewhere in Chaucer's work the word queynte seems to be used with meaning comparable to the modern "quaint" (charming, appealing).
By Shakespeare's day, the word seems to have become obscene. Although Shakespeare does not use the word explicitly (or with derogatory meaning) in his plays, he still plays with it, using wordplay to sneak it in obliquely. 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."[12] Also see Twelfth Night (Act II, Scene V): "There be her very Cs, her Us, and her Ts: and thus makes she her great Ps." A related scene occurs in Henry V: when Katherine is learning English, she is appalled at the "gros et impudique" English words "foot" and "gown," which her English teacher has mispronounced as "coun." Presumably Shakespeare intends to suggest that she has misheard "foot" as "foutre" (French, "fuck") and "coun" as "con" (French "cunt", also used to mean "idiot").[13][14] Similarly John Donne alludes to the obscene meaning of the word without being explicit in his poem The Good-Morrow, referring to sucking on "country pleasures".
The 1675 Restoration comedy The Country Wife also features such wordplay, even in its title.
By the 17th century a softer form of the word, "cunny," came into use. A well known use of this derivation can be found on the 25th October 1668 entry of the diary of Samuel Pepys. He was discovered having an affair with Deborah Willet: he wrote that his wife "coming up suddenly, did find me imbracing the girl con my hand sub su coats; and endeed I was with my main in her cunny. I was at a wonderful loss upon it and the girl also....".[15]
Cunny was probably derived from a pun on coney, meaning "rabbit", rather as pussy is connected to the same term for a cat. (Philip Massinger: "A pox upon your Christian cockatrices! They cry, like poulterers' wives, 'No money, no coney.'")[16] Largely because of this usage, the word coney to refer to rabbits changed pronunciation from short "o" (like money and honey) to long "o" (cone, as in Coney Island), and has now almost completely disappeared from most dialects of English; in the same way the word "pussy" is now rarely used in America to refer to a cat.
Robert Burns used the word in his Merry Muses of Caledonia, a collection of bawdy verses which he kept to himself and were not publicly available until the mid-1960s.[17] In "Yon, Yon, Yon, Lassie", this couplet appears:
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For ilka birss upon her cunt,
Was worth a ryal ransom
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[18]
Usage: modern
In modern literature
James Joyce is considered to be one of the first of the major 20th century novelists to put the word cunt in print. In the context of one of the central characters in Ulysses, Leopold Bloom, Joyce refers to the Dead Sea and to
the oldest people. Wandered far away over all the earth, captivity to captivity, multiplying, dying, being born everywhere. It lay there now. Now it could bear no more. Dead: an old woman's: the grey sunken cunt of the world.[19]
While Joyce used the word only once in Ulysses, with four other wordplays ('cunty') on it, D. H. Lawrence used the word ten times in Lady Chatterley's Lover[20]. Both books were banned in some countries and both became famous legal test cases, though not necessarily or specifically because of vulgar usage of the word cunt. The word was later used in many modern literary texts.
In his letters, particularly in a series written to his wife Nora in 1909, when Joyce was managing a cinema in Dublin and she was in Trieste, he makes more liberal use of the word. In a letter written on December 2, he counterposes love and cunt in terms at once lyrical and obscene:
a love for you allows me to pray to the spirit of eternal beauty and tenderness mirrored in your eyes... it allows me to burst into tears of pity and love at some slight word...while my head is wedged in between your fat thighs, my hands clutching the round cushions of your bum and my tongue licking ravenously up your rank red cunt... All I have written above is only a moment or two of brutal madness. The last drop of seed has hardly been squirted up your cunt before it is over and my true love for you, the love of my verses, the love of my eyes for your strange luring eyes, comes blowing over my soul like a wind of spices.
[citation needed]
- In D. H. Lawrence's 1928 novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, Mellors, the gamekeeper and eponymous lover, tries delicately to explain the definition of the word to Lady Constance Chatterley:
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If your sister there comes ter me for a bit o' cunt an' tenderness, she knows what she's after |
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. The novel was the subject of a UK prosecution for obscenity in 1961 against its publishers, Penguin Books which failed.[21]
- Henry Miller's novel Tropic of Cancer uses the word extensively, ensuring its banning in Britain between 1934 and 1961.[22] and being the subject of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Grove Press, Inc. v. Gerstein, 378 U.S. 577 (1964).
- Samuel Beckett's Malone Dies (1956) p24: "His young wife had abandoned all hope of bringing him to heel, by means of her cunt, that trump card of young wives."
- In Ian McEwan's 2001 novel Atonement, the word is used in a love letter mistakenly sent instead of a revised version, and although not spoken, is an important plot pivot.[23]
Usage by Country
Usage in Great Britain & Ireland
The word cunt still mainly remains the one word in the English language that is considered more offensive than fuck - this can be largely attributed to its history as a misogynist instrument, a history that elevates its offensiveness above that of rival "four-letter words".[citation needed]
However, the term cunt may also be used as a term of endearment. Context and tone usually show the distinction between this and pejorative use.
Usage in Australia
Much as in Britain and the United States, "cunt" is generally considered a highly offensive and uncouth word in Australia, and as with all such words, is much less acceptable in mixed company. Sometimes it is used as a mild (though highly uncouth) form of rebuke, and in this form often takes on one or more modifying adjectives, such as "silly old cunt", "lazy cunt", "dumb cunt", etc. Such rebukes can also be either genuine or not, as they may be employed in a mock way between friends: "What the fuck are you doing, you crazy cunt?" (A modification that is similarly sometimes used to express mock hostility between friends is "cuntface").
The word is also quite commonly used to describe extremely useless or unattractive objects or activities, as in "cunt of a machine" or "cunt of a job", or to describe situations: "What a cunt of a mess we've gotten into." It is also often reserved to describe the worst possible person, as in "that guy is an absolute cunt", "that dirty rotten cunt" and so on.
When used in the second person to someone not reasonably well known, it often expresses great anger or contempt, for example "Fuck you, you cunt", "You fuckin' cunt", "You are a cock-breath cunt!" or just "Cunt!", and as such may well be the prelude to a confrontation of some kind, possibly involving physical violence. But while even these expressions can also be used in a mocking and friendly manner, as a general rule of thumb, the word expresses a degree of contempt which places it at the very boundary of socially acceptable language. When applied directly to others therefore, it will almost always draw a measure of hostility no matter what the circumstances of its use.
Usage in the United States
While a small cohort of Americans are aware of the term's much reduced offensiveness in the UK, Ireland and Australia, the word cunt remains in America one of the words that is so offensive as to be customarily unspeakable in unfamiliar company.
The usage is quite different from other English-speaking countries; it often regarded as a highly misogynistic, and is as offensive to some as many racial slurs. Unless two people are very close, the word is not used as a term of endearment. Women very rarely use the word among themselves, except when referring to the vagina. Men may sometimes use the word but it is considered highly offensive. A man calling a woman a cunt is the highest order of insults.
The word is occasionally used by females to refer to their own genitalia, sometimes as a form of dirty talk and occasionally as a standard term preferred over the undignified pussy and the clinical vulva and vagina.
Use and acceptability varies by region. In Boston, which has a high Irish population, the word is somewhat more acceptable, for example. Still, the word is generally frowned on by enough people that its informal use is not accepted.
Usage by Meaning
Referring to women
In referring to a woman, cunt is a derogatory or abusive term, often considered the most offensive word that can be used in this context. It can imply that the named person is extremely nasty and unpleasant in a way that exceeds the vehemence of the word bitch. In the film One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, the central character McMurphy, when pressed to explain exactly why he doesn't like the tyrannical Nurse Ratched, says: "She's something of a cunt, ain't she, Doc?"[24]. It can also imply that women are useful only for having vaginas and thus serve no purpose save sexual gratification[25][26].
In 2004, University of Colorado president Elizabeth Hoffman fanned the flames of a football rape case when, during a deposition, she was asked if she thought "cunt" was a "filthy and vile" word. She replied that it was a "swear word" but had "actually heard it used as a term of endearment"[27]. A spokesperson later clarified that Hoffman meant the word had polite meanings in its original use centuries ago. In the rape case, a CU football player had allegedly called female player Katie Hnida a "fucking lovely cunt".
Referring to men
Frederic Manning's 1929 book The Middle Parts of Fortune, set in World War One, describes regular use of the word by British Tommies. It is invariably used to describe men:
- "And now the bastard's wearin' the bes' pair slung round ‘is own bloody neck. Wouldn't you've thought the cunt would ‘a' give me vingt frong for ‘em anyway."
- "What's the cunt want to come down 'ere buggering us about for, 'aven't we done enough bloody work in th' week?"[28]
Whilst normally derogatory in the USA, in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and to a lesser extent, the UK, it can have an informal comic quality and even be used as a term of endearment. Like the word fuck, use between youths is sometimes not frowned upon. For example, the phrases "How about I buy you a beer, you big cunt?" or "He's a good cunt" can be easily taken without any offence and quite possibly with a hint of affection.
The cinematic use of the term as an epithet used by one male towards another is seen in the 1992 film "Glengarry Glen Ross" when incensed real estate huckster "Ricky Roma" (Al Pacino) yells "You cunt!" at another character.
Referring to inanimate objects
Cunt is used extensively in Australia, Ireland and also in some parts of the UK as a replacement noun, more commonly among males and the working classes, similar to the use of motherfucker or son of a bitch among some Americans in extremely casual settings. For instance, "The cunt of a thing won't start," in reference to an automobile; or "Pass me that cunt," meaning "Pass me that item I need"; or "Those cunts down the road," referring to people in the vicinity. When used in this sense, the word does not necessarily imply contempt nor is it necessarily intended to be offensive.[citation needed]
Other uses
The word is sometimes used as a general expletive to show frustration, annoyance or anger. "I've had a cunt of a day!" or "This is a cunt to finish."
Australians have a habit of pairing the word with another to give a more specific meaning such as cunt-rash (visible disorder of the female genitalia, again normally a general insult). The phrase "sick cunt" is sometimes used as a compliment by such sub-groups as Australian surfers; (Ironically, this term, though having become common Aussie parlance, originated within non-Australian groups who combined their use of the term "sick" with what they saw as a typically Aussie expletive.)
Cunt may also be used as a backronym to describe a stupid person, body of people, or thing. C.U.N.T. can stand for: "Can't Understand Normal Thinking," and is used this way in the Southeastern United States. "C U Next Tuesday" has been used in Britain as well. This term is often responded to with the phrase "or The Wednesday After That" to spell out the word T.W.A.T.
A modern derivative adjective, cuntish (alternatively, "cuntacious"), meaning frustrating, awkward, or (when describing behavior) selfish, is increasingly used in England and has begun to appear in other regions, such as Scotland and Ireland. Another one, gaining popularity amongst clubbers, is cunted, meaning incoherent, intoxicated, or exhausted.
Cunting is routinely used as an intensifying modifier, much like fucking. It can also be used as a slang term for 'criticism' i.e "Did you see the cunting he got for saying that?", possibly a derivative of slagging or slagging off used in British slang.
The word cunty is also known, although used rarely: a line from Hanif Kureishi's My Beautiful Laundrette is the definition of England by a Pakistani immigrant as "eating hot buttered toast with cunty fingers," suggestive of hypocrisy and a hidden sordidness or immorality behind the country's quaint facade. This term is attributed to British novelist Henry Green.[29]
The term "sad cunt" has gained popularity recently in areas of Ireland and Australia. It is believed to have initiated from the complimentary slang term "mad cunt". The pervasiveness of this term is intensified through the juxtapositoning of the adjectives sad and mad. "Sad cunt" is effectively the opposite of "mad cunt" and is used to direct shame onto someone who has committed an act unbecoming of good citizenship.
The term is now adapted to suit a number of situations, particularly for youth involved in the alternative music scene in England. Cunted can mean to be extremely under the influence of drink and/or drugs. "Going cunting" means going out looking to pick up girls, as an alternative to "going on the pull", and a pun on the word hunting.
Usage In Modern Popular Culture
Theatre
Theatre censorship was effectively abolished in the UK in 1968; prior to that all theatrical productions had to be pre-vetted by the Lord Chamberlain; this relaxation made possible UK productions such as "Hair (The Musical)" and "Oh! Calcutta!". But "cunt" was not uttered on a British stage for some years.[30]
Television
Broadcast media, by definition, reach wide audiences and thus are regulated externally for content. To minimise not only public criticism but also regulatory sanctions, policies have been developed by media providers as to how "cunt" and similar words should be treated.[31] Nevertheless, there have been occasions when, particularly in a live broadcast, the word has been aired outside editorial control:
- The Frost Programme, broadcast live on November 7, 1970: The first time the word was known to have been used on British television, by Felix Dennis, in an affectionate reference rather than offensively. This incident has since been reshown many times.[32]
- Bernard Manning first said on television the line "They say you are what you eat. I'm a cunt." [33][34]
- This Morning in 2000, broadcast the word, used by the model Caprice Bourret while being interviewed live about her role in The Vagina Monologues[35]
- Similarly, Jane Fonda uttered the word on a live airing of the Today Show in 2008 when speaking about the Vagina Monologues.[36]
However, over the last two decades or so, "cunt" has crossed over from accidental to purposeful use:
- The first scripted use of the word in the United Kingdom was in the ITV drama "No Mama No", broadcast in 1979.[32]
- In July 2007 BBC Three dedicated a full hour to the word in a detailed documentary ("The 'C' Word") about the origins, use and evolution of the word from the early 1900s to the present day. Presented by British comedian Will Smith, viewers were taken to a street in Oxford once called 'Gropecunt Lane' and presented with examples of the acceptability of "cunt" as a word.[37]
In the US, despite the First Amendment, the broadcast use of "cunt" is still rare. Nevertheless, the word has slowly infiltrated into American broadcasting:
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