Cunt
Cunt is a vulgar term that refers to the human female genitals. Presumably once the standard English word for the vagina, it is now used only as a coarse colloquialism. It is also used as a term of abuse, particularly when used by a man to describe a woman, as in "she's a real cunt." It can also be used more abstractly, as in "I've had a cunt of a day." The word is generally considered to be extremely offensive, although equivalent words referring to the penis (such as "prick") are used more freely and have less taboo attached to them.
With the growing acceptance of the word fuck in print and broadcast media, cunt is the last genuinely unprintable and unsayable word in mainstream media (not counting highly politicized expressions such as nigger, which are part of a new taboo vocabulary). There is, however, a small movement amongst some feminists that seek to reclaim cunt as an acceptable word, in much the same way that "queer" has been reclaimed by homosexuals.
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 and the Frisian kunte. Its original derivation is an Old Germanic stem kunton. See gonads, genital, gamete, genetics and gene.
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.
Although Shakespeare doesn't use the word explicitly (or with derogatory meaning) in his plays, he still has fun with it, using word play to sneak it in. In Act III, Scene 2, of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, 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."
In a similar fashion, the British band The Sex Pistols recorded a song entitled Pretty Vacant, pronounced pretty vay-khunt.
Related Topics
External links
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