Cunt

[[Image:musthavethis.jpg|165px|right|thumb|<center>"Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their [[sex|love]] with women all across this country." —'''[[George W. Bush|GW Bush]]''' Sept. 6, 2004, in front of a photoshopped background.</center>]]
{{sex}}
'''Cunt''', referring to female genitalia, is one of the most [[taboo]] [[Fun:Four Letter Words|four-letter words]] in the English language. This is because it is considered offensive both by [[religious]] prudes and [[feminist]] prudes, which means very few people can safely say it without offending someone in their business or social circles. It also tends to offend girls from middle school to college age in the United States because they just ''know'' that assholes use it to be deliberately hurtful (much like [[Nigger|the N-word]]). Calling a young lady this is an excellent way to get slapped or kicked in the balls.

As perhaps the most powerful force in the [[universe]], it has many other names.<ref>[http://archive.is/UPHWz Wordlist] ''Love Your Vagina'' (archived from 7 Jul 2013 13:07:10 UTC).</ref>
<!-- 
Of course, female genitalia is apparently scary by any name. On June 14, 2012, Michigan State Representative Lisa Brown was banned from speaking in the House because she scared the largely white male House with the word "vagina" during a discussion of [[abortion]]. -->

==Etymologies==
[[Image:Cunt examination.jpg|thumb|left|The word is seldom encountered in clinical settings, but there are apparently exceptions.]]

The vagina is a wonderful place from which most of us came,{{efn|{{wpl|Gustave Courbet}} did name his painting {{wpl|L'Origine du monde|L'Origine du monde ("The Origin of the World")}} exactly because of that.}} and where many of us try to return to as often as possible. The word ''vagina'' simply means "sheath" in [[Latin]], and it has been in use in English for more than three centuries.<ref>The oldest example of "vagina" in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' comes from 1682, pre-dating the first use of the word [[Penis]] by around two years</ref> "Cunt," by comparison, is a legitimate non-slang word with an extremely long history. The earliest known usages were as place names, e.g. Cuntelowe, Warwickshire in 1221 and Gropecuntelane, Oxford and London in 1230)<ref name=oed>"cunt, n.", ''Oxford English Dictionary''.</ref> Gropecuntelane was where the [[Prostitution|brothels]] were located.<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cunt Etymology Online]</ref> ''Nice!'' The Middle English word "quentye" had several homonymous meanings, including 'pleasing-thing' and 'clever'.<ref>''The Riverside Chaucer''</ref> From this root we also derive the word 'quaint'.

"Cunt" has several cognates in other languages:<ref name=oed/>
* ''cunnus'' in Latin, from [[Indo-European languages|Proto-Indo-European]] *''kut-nos''<ref>''cunnus'', in T. G. Tucker, Etymological Dictionary of Latin (Halle, 1931, repr. Ares Publishers, 1985) ISBN 0-89005-172-0</ref>
** ''con'' in [[fun:French|French]]
** ''cona'' in Portuguese
** ''coño'' in modern Spanish
* ''κύσθος'' (''kysthos''), in Greek
* ''kunta'' in old Norse, modern Norwegian,<ref name=oed/> Swedish<ref name=oed/>
* ''kunte'' in Danish, Middle Low German<ref name=oed/>
* ''kut'' in Dutch
* ''quim'' in English
* ''queynte'' in Middle English{{efn|As immortalized by Chaucer: And prively he caughte hire by the queynte / And seyde, "Ywis, but if ich have my wille / For deerne love of thee, lemman, I spille."}}

Ultimately, it derives from the Proto-Indo-European stem ''*gwen-'', meaning "woman" (giving it the literal meaning of "womanly bits" and thus cognate with such words as "gynecologist" and "banshee"). The word also has resemblances to "cunabula," a cradle and "cunicle," an obsolete word for a passage. The [[Roman]]s extended the use of ''cunnus'' to mean ''whore'' in much the same way that English speakers used "cunt" as a pejorative term for "woman", as well as for a woman's anatomical parts.<ref>Rawson, H. (1981), ''A Dictionary of euphemisms and other doubletalk'', Macdonald</ref> This usage has now evolved into an abusive derogatory term which has given "cunt" an entirely new meaning,<ref>[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cunt The Urban Dictionary] only admits of the term being abusive towards women </ref> particularly when applied to men as well as women.

==Usage==
Cunt is used — particularly by non–American English speakers — in a wide variety of situations, as well as in the more traditional usage in reference to the ''pudenda''. Beginning with the most traditional use, examples include:

*"She had a lovely cunt."
*"She's a complete cunt."
*"He's a fucking cunt."
*"What kind of a stupid cunt do you think I am?" (may be used by either gender)
*"This cunting spanner doesn't fit any of these fucking lug nuts."
*"Barcelona want Cesc for 30mil, the fucking cunts."
*"Cunt cunt cunt the cuntin' cunt" ''(Australian)''
*"Oh the everyday life of glorious Chinese cunts." ''(天朝木耳的日常, Chinese [[Manosphere]])''

==Shock value==
[[Image:Medium ink blot.gif|thumb|<center>A beauty cunt, eh?</center>]] 

Along with other words expressing [[bigotry]], it is widely considered to be ''the'' most offensive word in English (at least in the [[US]]<ref>[https://www.indy100.com/viral/us-worst-swear-words-ranked-b1827546-2656995131 The most offensive American swear words ranked] by Breanna Robinson (Mar 20, 2022) ''Indy100''.</ref> and [[UK]]<ref>[https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a809925/ofcom-swear-words-ranking-in-order-of-offensiveness/ This is Ofcom's ranking of swear words in order of offensiveness: "Oh, f**k, wank, bugger, shitting, arse, head and hole."] by Bea Mitchell (9 Feb 2018) ''Digital Spy''.</ref>), above the likes of "motherfucker" and "fuck,"{{efn|Although it might have competition from racial slurs, such as [[nigger]].}} but its use and the public exposure to such language has degraded what such a prominent position means. One indication of the shock value of the word is the {{wpl|Scunthorpe problem||,}} in which AOL blocked residents from S'''cunt'''horpe, England from creating accounts in 1996.<ref>[http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/18.07.html#subj3 AOL censors British town's name!] by Clive Feather (7 Apr 1996 15:28:52 +0100 BST) ''The Risks Digest''.</ref>

Mark Lawson, writing in ''[[The Guardian]]'' (February 5, 2004), contends that the word has now lost its power to shock, at least in [[England]].<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1141094,00.html Has swearing lost its power to shock?]</ref> This was following an outburst from [[punk]] icon [[John Lydon]] (one time member of the Sex Pistols), who, at 10:30 PM on February 4, 2004, during a mainstream live British television transmission of ''I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!'' (a reality show in which failing celebrities degrade themselves for [[tabloid]] attention) accused the voting audience at home of being "fucking cunts" for failing to choose him as that night's loser. Fewer than 100 complaints were received by ITV1 (the broadcaster) and Ofcom (the regulatory authority) combined — contrasted with the many thousands that complained about the [[blasphemy]] contained in ''[[Jerry Springer: The Opera]]'' at around the same time. However, swearing of any kind still generates steady complaints ''before'' the "watershed" time of 9:00 PM. [[Australian]]s continue to use the word as a sort of hyphen.<ref>[https://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/outrageous-words-that-are-said-every-day-in-australia 9 Outrageous Words That Are Said Every Day In Australia] by Brad Esposito (20 Feb 2014) ''BuzzFeed News''.</ref>

==Cunt in popular culture==
*In 1975, [[lesbian]] and artist Tee Corinne published the ''Cunt Coloring Book'',<ref>''Cunt Coloring Book: Drawings'' by Tee Corinne (1975) Pearlchild Productions.</ref> as an attempt to reclaim the word as something positive and to show the beauty and diversity of cunts. Some later editions of the book were published as ''Labiaflowers''.<ref>''Labiaflowers: A Coloring Book'' by Tee Corinne (1981) The Naiad Press. ISBN 0930044207.</ref><ref>[http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/corinne_ta_A.pdf Corinne, Tee (1943-2006)] by Tamsin Wilton (2002) ''glbtq Encyclopedia Project''.</ref>
*One of the many segments of ''[[The Vagina Monologues]]'' is called "I Call it Cunt".
*"See You Next Tuesday" (C U Next Tuesday) is a catty backronym (acronym back-formation),<ref>[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/backronym "Backronym"], Wiktionary.]</ref> sometimes used intentionally.{{efn|If you don't get it, pretend that you're a trendy text-messaging teenager with no grasp of standard English and rewrite the first two words.}}
*[[The Clash]], in keeping with their observed policy of using one swear word per album, use the line "all the young cunts" several times in their song "All the Young Punks" on ''Give 'Em Enough Rope''.
*Irvine Welsh, author of ''Trainspotting'', regularly uses the term "cunt" in place of other male pronouns in his novels.
*In ''The Thick of It'', Malcolm Tucker uses the word cunt — ''a lot''.
*Not forgetting, of course, that book with the daisy.{{efn|It's a {{wpl|Gazania|''Gazania''}} actually, but whatever.}}<ref>''Cunt: A Declaration of Independence'' by Inga Muscio (2002) Seal Press, 2<sup>nd</sup> edition. ISBN 1580050751.</ref>
*In 2016, [[Samantha Bee]] gave her "Thunder Cunt" award T-Shirt to CNN host Jake Tapper "for making cable news bearable".<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdOUspS-djo And the Thunder Cunt Goes To…] by Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (Dec 5, 2016) ''YouTube''.</ref> In 2018, she called Ivanka Trump a "feckless cunt".
<gallery>
File:Cunt Coloring Books.jpg|Use your imagination!
File:Cunt A Declaration of Independence.jpg|Please [[Oral sex|''do'' eat the daisies]]{{efn|Riffing off {{wpl|Please Don't Eat the Daisies|''Please Don't Eat the Daisies''|.}}}}
File:Labia pride activist street art.jpg|Grabbing the word back for feminism
File:Womens-march-santa-cruz-2017- 01.jpg|Country matters… Santa Cruz Women's March, 2017
</gallery>

==Trivia==
{{trivia}}
[[File:Magpie lane.jpg|thumb|right|165px|The former Gropecunt Lane in Oxford, now Magpie Lane]]
* In the first century BCE, Cicero held that ''cunnus'' should be avoided as being obscene.
* The City of [[London]] (ca. 1230 CE), and other [[English]] towns and cities, once boasted a ''Gropecuntelane''.<ref>{{wpa|Gropecunt Lane}}</ref> It has since been renamed ''Threadneedle Street'', a Victorian euphemism for sexual intercourse. It is the current location of the Bank of England. Many consider this oddly appropriate.
* Chaucer used the word unblushingly in his Canterbury Tales (1387-1400). The Wife of Bath in her tale, says:
**''What eyleth yow to grucche thus and grone?''
**''Os it for ye wolde have my queynte allone?''
* In ''Twelfth Night'' (1600-1601) by [[William Shakespeare]], the steward Malvolio, upon picking up a letter, attempts to decipher it:
**''By my life, this is my lady's hand.'' 
**''These be her very '''C''''s her '''U''''s and ''[here "and" could substitute for "'''N'''"]{{efn|"Cut" meant the same thing as "cunt" in Elizabethan slang.<ref>[https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2016/12/01/great-moments-in-swearing-naughty-spelling-in-shakespeares-twelfth-night/ Great moments in swearing: Naughty spelling in Shakespeare's ''Twelfth Night''] by John Kelly (December 1, 2016) ''Strong Language: A Sweary Blog About Swearing''.</ref>}}
** ''Her '''T'''s, and thus she makes her great '''P''''s.''
* In ''Hamlet'' (1603) by William Shakespeare, the title character uses "country matters" as a thinly-veiled euphemism.{{efn|Shakespeare had a knack for slipping innuendoes and obscenities into his plays, as many who study his works would be eager to note.}} It is worth knowing that "nothing" was a common slang of the day with the same meaning.
** HAMLET: (lying down at OPHELIA's feet) Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
** OPHELIA: No, my lord.
** HAMLET: I mean, my head upon your lap?
** OPHELIA: Ay, my lord.
** HAMLET: Do you think I meant country matters?
** OPHELIA: I think nothing, my lord.
** HAMLET: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
** OPHELIA: What is, my lord?
** HAMLET: Nothing.
*In ''The Royal Angler of Windsor'', a ditty on the Subject of Nell Gwyn, Charles II's mistress, John, Wilmott, 2<sup>nd</sup> Earl of Rochester writes:
**''However weak and slender be the string,''
**''Bait it with Cunt, and it will hold a king.''
* By the time that Robert Burns came to write his ''Merrie Muses of Caledonia'' (ca. 1800), the use of the word was [[Censorship|expurgated]] from the text:
** ''For ilka hair upon her c___t''
** ''Was worth a royal ransom.''
* The word was used several times in the first part of the 20<sup>th</sup> century by authors such as D. H. Lawrence in ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' (1928), and James Joyce, in ''Ulysses'' (1922), in which he describes the Dead Sea as ''"… the grey silken cunt of the Holy Land"''. However, it was not until ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' was finally cleared for full publication in 1959 (US) and 1960 (UK) that the word "cunt" could once again be used in mainstream literature.
* The word is still [[taboo]] on mainstream British television,{{efn|Though it has been used sparingly on occasion, usually post-watershed; ''The Thick of It'' uses it particularly liberally.}} but Kenny Everett,{{efn|A disc jockey & anarchic TV (sic) personality of the 1970s & 1980s}} had a character called "Cupid Stunt"{{efn|Reportedly, this was his second choice for the name. The first (rejected) name was supposedly "Mary Hinge".}} while Rik Mayall played a character called A. Cnut.<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327269/ Believe Nothing]</ref> There was also a [[Monty Python]] sketch in which a character who was able to pronounce the letter ''k'' but not the letter ''c'' (which he mispronounced as ''b'') was advised to use ''k''s in place of hard ''c''s. For his own failure to think of this, the character then self-deprecatingly referred to himself as a "silly bunt". This line only appeared in live performances of the sketch and recordings thereof; presumably it was too salacious for television.
*To call someone a "burk" or "berk" is a closeted way of calling them a cunt, using the rhyming slang of "Berkshire hunt". It is worth noting that, despite its etymology, this term is not regarded as being anywhere near as offensive as the word ''cunt''.
*The London ''Times'' bans this word in its personal ads. Back in the 1960s, some ingenious woman evaded the ban by posting "See you when tea is ready, my darling."
*Similarly, "dropkick" is rhyming slang, short for "dropkick punt". ''(Australia)''
*
::'''''C'''ome love, and dwell with me''
::'''''U'''nder the greenwood tree,''
::'''''N'''one can more happy be,''
::'''''T'''han I shall be if blessed with thee!''
:::(Quoted in Pearsall 1969, 495)<ref>Read more: Victorian Age — Charles — JRank Articles [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/834/Victorian-Age.html#ixzz1nQ9j3ZP1]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Sexual intercourse]]
*[[Yoni]]
*[[Dick]]
*{{wpa|Profanity}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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[[Category:Sexuality]]
[[Category:Sexism]]
[[Category:Language]]

Categories: Anatomy, Sexuality, Sexism, Language