Cunt

''Cunt'' () is a vulgar word for the vulva or vagina. It is used in a variety of ways, including as a term of disparagement. Reflecting national variations, ''cunt'' can be used as a disparaging and obscene term for a woman in the United States, an unpleasant or stupid man or woman in the United Kingdom, or a contemptible man in Australia and New Zealand. However, in Australia and New Zealand it can also be a neutral or positive term when used with a positive qualifier (e.g., "He's a good cunt"). The term has various derivative senses, including adjective and verb uses.

Feminist writer and English professor Germaine Greer argues that ''cunt'' "is one of the few remaining words in the English language with a genuine power to shock".

History

The earliest known use of the word, according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', was as part of a placename of a London street, Gropecunt Lane, . Use of the word as a term of abuse is relatively recent, dating from the late nineteenth century. The word appears not to have been taboo in the Middle Ages, but became taboo towards the end of the eighteenth century, and was then not generally admissible in print until the latter part of the twentieth century.

Etymology

The etymology of ''cunt'' is a matter of debate, but most sources consider the word to have derived from a Germanic word (Proto-Germanic ''*kuntō'', stem ''*kuntōn-''), which appeared as ' in Old Norse. Scholars are uncertain of the origin of the Proto-Germanic form itself. There are cognates in most Germanic languages, most of which also have the same meaning as the English cunt, such as the Swedish, Faroese and Nynorsk '; West Frisian and Middle Low German '; another Middle Low German '; Middle High German ' (meaning ""); modern German '; Middle Dutch '; modern Dutch words ' (same meaning) and ' ("butt"); and perhaps Old English '.

The etymology of the Proto-Germanic term is disputed. It may have arisen by Grimm's law operating on the Proto-Indo-European root ' "" seen in gonads, genital, gamete, genetics, gene, or the Proto-Indo-European root ' "" ( el, italic=yes, gunê, seen in gynaecology). Relationships to similar-sounding words such as the Latin ' (""), and its derivatives French ', Spanish ', and Portuguese ', or in Persian ' (), have not been conclusively demonstrated. Other Latin words related to ''cunnus'' are ' ("") and its derivative ' ("", (figurative) ""), leading to English words such as ''cuneiform'' (""). In Middle English, ''cunt'' appeared with many spellings, such as ', ' and ', which did not always reflect the actual pronunciation of the word.

The word, in its modern meaning, is attested in Middle English. ''Proverbs of Hendyng'', a manuscript from some time before 1325, includes the advice:

Offensiveness

Generally

The word ''cunt'' is generally regarded in English-speaking countries as profanity and unsuitable for normal public discourse. It has been described as "the most heavily tabooed word of all English words", although John Ayto, editor of the '' Oxford Dictionary of Slang'', says "nigger" is more taboo.

Feminist perspectives

Some American feminists of the 1970s sought to eliminate disparaging terms for women, including "bitch" and "cunt". In the context of pornography, Catharine MacKinnon argued that use of the word acts to reinforce a dehumanisation of women by reducing them to mere body parts; and in 1979 Andrea Dworkin described the word as reducing women to "the one essential – 'cunt: our essence ... our offence'".

Despite criticisms, there is a movement among feminists that seeks to reclaim ''cunt'' not only as acceptable, but as an honorific, in much the same way that ''queer'' has been reappropriated by LGBT people and ''nigger'' has been by some African-Americans. Proponents include artist Tee Corinne in ''The Cunt Coloring Book'' (1975); Eve Ensler in "Reclaiming Cunt" from ''The Vagina Monologues'' (1996); and Inga Muscio in her book, '' Cunt: A Declaration of Independence'' (1998);.

Germaine Greer, the feminist writer and professor of English who once published a magazine article entitled "Lady, Love Your Cunt" (anthologised in 1986), discussed the origins, usage and power of the word in the BBC series ''Balderdash and Piffle'', explaining how her views had developed over time. In the 1970s she had "championed" the use of the word for the female genitalia, thinking it "shouldn't be abusive"; she rejected the "proper" word ''vagina'', a Latin name meaning "sword-sheath" originally applied by male anatomists to all muscle coverings (see synovial sheath) – not just because it refers only to the internal canal but also because of the implication that the female body is "simply a receptacle for a weapon". But in 2006, referring to its use as a term of abuse, she said that, though used in some quarters as a term of affection, it had become "the most offensive insult one man could throw at another" and suggested that the word was "sacred", and "a word of immense power, to be used sparingly".

Usage: pre-twentieth century

''Cunt'' has been attested 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", it did not appear in any major English dictionary 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 from 1230 in what was supposedly a 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 an ordinary name for the vulva or vagina. Gropecunt Lane was originally a street of prostitution, a red light district. It was normal in the Middle Ages 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" and "Fish Street". In some locations, the former name has been bowdlerised, as in the City of York, to the more acceptable "Grape Lane".

The somewhat similar word 'queynte' appears several times in Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales'' (c. 1390), in bawdy contexts, but since it is used openly, does not appear to have been considered obscene at that time. 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". 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" (curious or old-fashioned, but nevertheless appealing). This ambiguity was still being exploited by the 17th century; Andrew Marvell's ''... then worms shall try / That long preserved virginity, / And your quaint honour turn to dust, / And into ashes all my lust'' in ''To His Coy Mistress'' depends on a pun on these two senses of "quaint".

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 uses 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 his girlfriend Ophelia, "Lady, shall I lie in your lap?" Ophelia 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." In ''Twelfth Night'' (Act II, Scene V) the puritanical Malvolio believes he recognises his employer's handwriting in an anonymous letter, commenting "There be her very Cs, her Us, and her Ts: and thus makes she her great Ps", unwittingly punning on "cunt" and "piss", and while it has also been argued that the slang term "cut" is intended, Pauline Kiernan writes that Shakespeare ridicules "prissy puritanical party-poopers" by having "a Puritan spell out the word 'cunt' on a public stage". A related scene occurs in ''Henry V'': when Katherine is learning English, she is appalled at the "''gros, et impudique''" words "foot" and "gown", which her teacher has mispronounced as "''coun''". It is usually argued that Shakespeare intends to suggest that she has misheard "foot" as "''foutre''" (French, "fuck") and "coun" as "''con''" (French "cunt", also used to mean "idiot").

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 word play, 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 in the 25 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 embracing the girl con ithmy hand sub ndersu ercoats; and endeed I was with my main andin her cunny. I was at a wonderful loss upon it and the girl also ...."

''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 (1583–1640): "A pox upon your Christian cockatrices! They cry, like poulterers' wives, 'No money, no coney.'") Because of this slang use as a synonym for a taboo term, the word "coney", when it was used in its original sense to refer to rabbits, came to be pronounced as (rhymes with "phoney"), instead of the original (rhymes with "honey"). Eventually, the taboo association led to the word "coney" becoming deprecated entirely and replaced by the word "rabbit".

Robert Burns (1759–1796) 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. In "Yon, Yon, Yon, Lassie", this couplet appears: "For ilka birss upon her cunt, Was worth a ryal ransom" ("For every hair upon her cunt was worth a royal ransom").

Usage: modern

As a term of abuse

Merriam-Webster states it is a "usually disparaging and obscene" term for a woman, and that it is an "offensive way to refer to a woman" in the United States. In American slang, the term can also be used to refer to "a fellow male homosexual one dislikes". Australian scholar Emma Alice Jane describes how the term as used on modern social media is an example of what she calls "gendered vitriol", and an example of misogynistic e-bile. As a broader derogatory term, it is comparable to ''prick'' and means "a fool, a dolt, an unpleasant person – of either sex".
This sense is common in New Zealand, British, and Australian English, where it is usually applied to men or as referring ''specifically'' to "a despicable, contemptible or foolish" ''man''.

During the 1971 Oz trial for obscenity, prosecuting counsel asked writer George Melly, "Would you call your 10-year-old daughter a cunt?" Melly replied, "No, because I don't think she is."

In the 1975 film '' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'', the central character McMurphy, when pressed to explain exactly why he does not like the tyrannical Nurse Ratched, says, "Well, I don't want to break up the meeting or nothing, but she's something of a cunt, ain't she, Doc?"

Other usage

In informal British, Irish, New Zealand, and Australian English, and occasionally but to a lesser extent in Canadian English, it can be used with no negative connotations to refer to a (usually male) person. In this sense, it may be modified by a positive qualifier (funny, clever, etc.).For example, ''Glue'' by Irvine Welsh, p. 266, "Billy can be a funny cunt, a great guy ...." For example, "This is my mate Brian. He's a good cunt."

It can also be used to refer to something very difficult or unpleasant (as in "a cunt of a job").

In the Survey of English Dialects the word was recorded in some areas as meaning "the vulva of a cow". This was pronounced as ʌntin Devon, and ʊntin the Isle of Man, Gloucestershire and Northumberland. Possibly related was the word ''cunny'' ʌni with the same meaning, in Wiltshire.

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 façade. This term is attributed to British novelist Henry Green. In the United States, "cunty" is sometimes used in cross-dressing drag ball culture for a drag queen that "projects feminine beauty" and was the title of a hit song by Aviance. A visitor to a New York drag show tells of the emcee praising a queen with "cunty, cunty, cunty" as she walks past.

Frequency of use

Frequency of use varies widely. According to research in 2013 and 2014 by Aston University and the University of South Carolina, based on a corpus of nearly 9 billion words in geotagged tweets, the word was most frequently used in the United States in New England and was least frequently used in the south-eastern states. In Maine, it was the most frequently used "cuss word" after "asshole".

Examples of use

Literature

James Joyce was one of the first major 20th-century novelists to put the word "cunt" into print. In the context of one of the central characters in ''Ulysses'' (1922), Leopold Bloom, Joyce refers to the Dead Sea and to
Joyce uses the word figuratively rather than literally; but 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'' (1928), in a more direct sense. Mellors, the gamekeeper and eponymous lover, tries delicately to explain the definition of the word to Lady Constance Chatterley: "If your sister there comes ter me for a bit o' cunt an' tenderness, she knows what she's after." The novel was the subject of an unsuccessful UK prosecution in 1961 against its publishers, Penguin Books was an associate of Joyce, and in his ''Malone Dies'' (1956), he writes: "His young wife had abandoned all hope of bringing him to heel, by means of her cunt, that trump card of young wives." In 1998, Inga Muscio published '' Cunt: A Declaration of Independence''. In Ian McEwan's novel ''Atonement'' (2001), set in 1935, the word is used in the draft of a love letter mistakenly sent instead of a revised version and, although not spoken, is an important plot pivot.

Irvine Welsh uses the word widely in his novels, such as '' Trainspotting'', generally as a generic placeholder for a man, and not always negatively, e.g. "Ah wis the cunt wi the fuckin pool cue in ma hand, n the plukey cunt could huv the fat end ay it in his pus if he wanted, like."

Art

The word is occasionally used in the titles of works of art, such as Peter Renosa's portrait of the pop singer Madonna, "I am the Cunt of Western Civilization", a 1990 quote from the singer. One of the first works of Gilbert & George was a self-portrait in 1969 entitled "Gilbert the Shit and George the Cunt". The London performance art group the Neo Naturists had a song and an act called "Cunt Power", a name which potter Grayson Perry borrowed for one of his early works: "An unglazed piece of modest dimensions, made from terracotta like clay – labia carefully formed with once wet material, about its midriff". Australian artist Greg Taylor's display of scores of white porcelain vulvas, "CUNTS and other conversations" (2009), was deemed controversial for both its title and content, with Australia Post warning the artist that the publicity postcards were illegal.

Theatre

Theatre censorship was effectively abolished in the UK in 1968; prior to that, all theatrical productions had to be vetted by the Lord Chamberlain's Office. English stand-up comedian Roy "Chubby" Brown claims that he was the first person to say the word on stage in the United Kingdom.

Television

United Kingdom

Broadcast media are regulated for content, and media providers such as the BBC
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