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Cunt is a vulgarism in English which refers to the human female reproductive system. Some consider the term obscene and highly offensive, perhaps the most offensive of expletives; others treat it as merely vulgar; yet others regard it merely as informal but not vulgar slang. The term encompasses both the vagina and vulva (cf. pussy and the Sanskrit yoni). Polite but non-specific alternative terms, usually used by children or their parents, include thing, ya-ya, or coochie (see list of euphemisms below).

The term may sometimes be used in a non-specific derogatory sense in reference to people of either sex: "John (or Jane) is such a cunt", in which case the term is an instance of synecdoche. The term has various other uses (see usage below). In Australian English, "cunt" can be an insult specifically directed at males; the Macquarie Dictionary defines the term as "a despicable man".

Historically, the term has long been in use as an anatomical reference. The earliest citation of this usage appears in the Oxford English Dictionary, in reference to a London street known as "Gropecunt Lane", circa 1230. Use of the term as a vulgar insult is a much more recent development, with the earliest citation dating from 1929.

Etymology

Cunt is an old Germanic word (Proto-Germanic *kunton), and appeared as queynte in Middle English and kunta in Old Norse. It has cognates in most Germanic languages, such as the Swedish, Faroese and Old Norwegian kunta, 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. However, kont, the Afrikaans equivalent of cunt, is considered more offensive to Afrikaans-speakers than cunt is to English-speakers.

The etymology of the term is however 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 *gneH₂/guneH₂ = "woman" seen in gynaecology. Relationships to similar-sounding words such as the Latin cunnus (vulva), and its derivatives 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 (wedge-shaped).

Vulgarity and offensiveness

Like many vulgar words, cunt owes some of its potency 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.

Some consider the term highly offensive, and it is arguably the most offensive word in the English language. Others consider it merely a common profanity with an often humorous connotation.

Some commentators argue that the growing acceptance, as they see it, of the word fuck in print and broadcast media, renders cunt as the last genuinely unprintable and unsayable expletive in these places. However, there are an increasing number of instances of the term being printed and spoken, usually in reference to a person rather than as part of the anatomy.

The word is arguably more offensive in the United States than it is in other English speaking countries. For example, in Australia the word may be used by larrikins as a colloquial term of endearment (eg. "You're a funny cunt, Rodney!" or "Sick cunt!"). The same type of usage is also fairly common in Great Britain as well as among other Europeans who speak or learn English.

Usage: Pre-20th century

Cunt has been in common use in its anatomical meaning 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".

The word appears several times in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c1390), in bawdy contexts, but it does not appear to be thought of as 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" . 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 been thought of as 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. 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 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, "idiot" (although literally "cunt")).

The 1675 Restoration comedy The Country Wife also features such wordplay, including in its title.

By the 17th century a softer form of the word, "cunny," came into use. This 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.'") 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, much in the same way that the word "pussy" is now rarely used to refer to a cat.

Usage: Contemporary

Referring to genitalia
This usage is highly taboo, and is almost never seen in print or on screen, or heard in polite conversation. In the film The Silence of the Lambs, a caged prisoner tells the female protagonist "I can smell your cunt, and I want it!" The line is used to illustrate his grotesquely despicable nature. The point was utterly lost when the line was overdubbed for television as "I can smell your scent".

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 way. 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?"

It is sometimes used somewhat less abusively, in vulgar reference to supposed female inferiority: "Why should I let some dumb cunt tell me what to do?"

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." 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
In the United Kingdom, cunt is used to refer to men usually in a derogatory sense. "Nick is such a cunt" would express disdain for Nick.

In Australia, New Zealand and, to a lesser extent, in the UK also, it can have a comic quality and can even be used as a term of endearment. For example the phrase "How about I buy you a beer, you big cunt," could be easily taken without any offence and possibly with a hint of affection.

A common use of the word in Australia is: "My cock may be small, but it only has to please one cunt, and that cunt is me!". The joke here, aside from sexual inadequacy and selfishness, is that "cunt" refers to female genitalia but in popular Australian usage is more likely a replacement noun used to refer to people or objects.

Usage in Scotland
Cunt is used extensively in Scotland in a non-derogatory way to simply refer to a person when no insult is intended. For example "Any cunt kens (knows) that!" or "That poor cunt was just minding his business when the bus ran over him"

Referring to inanimate objects
Cunt is used extensively in Australia and also in some parts of Scotland 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 won't start" referring to a car that won't start, 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.

Other uses
The word is sometimes used as an 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 or simply a greater effect. Common examples include: cuntstomer (merger with the word 'customer', used in retail when "off the floor" to describe a problem customer, cuntstable (merger with constable, to denote an officer of the law) and cunt-rash (visible disorder of the female genitalia, again normally a general insult). A sick-cunt is another compliment given, often by Australian surfer boys to their friends or people that have impressed them, e.g "Man that guy can charge the goon, he is a sick-cunt." Ironically this term,though having become common Aussie parlance, originated within non-anglo groups (particularly those of Arabic background), who combined their use of the term "sick" with what they saw as a typically Aussie expletive. The term "cunt-rag" is often used to refer to people in derogatory manner, e.g "I hate that guy, he's such a cunt-rag". Some have suggested that this refers to the use of "rag" as a slang term for the sanitary pads used to absorb menstrual blood, as in the term "she is on the rag".

"Cunt," may also be used as an acronym, 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 England as well.

A modern derivative adjective, "cuntish", (or alternatively, "cuntacious") meaning "frustrating" or "awkward" or sometimes (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".

The word "cunty" is also known, although used rarely: a famous 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. The term was originally attributed to British novelist Henry Green .

There are also other forms of the vernacular such as "King Cunty" and "Cuntis Maximus" that are used by a small group of Australians that implies a term of respect or leadership. "Cuntox" is also employed as a term of derision.

Feminist viewpoints

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 .

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", "dick-head", "utter balls" (or "bollocks") , etc). However, these words generally aren't 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 homosexuals . Proponents include Inga Muscio in her book, Cunt: A Declaration of Independence, 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”.

More recently, Germaine Greer 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.

Breaking taboo

The taboo status of the word has been the cause of many deliberate challenges: in January 2005, the BBC courted 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 echoed appearances in well-known US movies and TV shows. The horror movie, The Exorcist, included the line: "Do you know what she did, your cunting daughter?", and the Tom Selleck film An Innocent Man (film) saw a female character referred to as "your crusading cunt of a wife", while Ricky Roma (Al Pacino) refers to Williamson (Kevin Spacey) as "You stupid fucking cunt, you idiot!" in Glengarry Glen Ross. The word was used repeatedly in the 1996 film Trainspotting and also in Irvine Welsh's novel on which it was based.

The critically acclaimed HBO TV shows Sex and the City, The Sopranos, Deadwood and The Wire also make frequent use of the word; and two episodes of the sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm ("Beloved Aunt" and "The Shrimp Incident") are devoted to the comical repercussions of its inadvertent use. Another HBO program Lucky Louie, featured an episode ("Flowers for Kim") revolving around Louie ruining his entire weekend by calling his wife a cunt.

The climax of Kill Bill, Volume 2 - the dying Bill makes some affectionate remarks to the Bride but concludes that she "can be a real cunt." Finally, the movie The Way of the Gun highlights phrase: "Shut that cunt's mouth or I'll come over there and fuck-start her head," in the opening sequence.

Double act Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are often credited with having made the word more acceptable and accessible in the United Kingdom in the 20th Century through their Derek and Clive dialogues. In one sketch from 1976 called "This Bloke Came Up To Me", the word is used 31 times in the course of two minutes.

The first time the word was used on television was by Felix Dennis in 1970 on the The Frost Programme.

It was Bernard Manning who first said on television the much-copied line "They say you are what you eat. I'm a cunt." (This obvious plagiarism of the cult comic, Swami X's more felicitous lines, "If you are what you eat, then I'm a nymphomaniac", has gone unheralded in the pantheon of recent cuntology. See Swami X).

Some 30 years later, it was used by the model Caprice Bourret while being interviewed live about her role in The Vagina Monologues in the UK daytime programme This Morning.

Used extensively in New Zealands cult TV series "Back Of The Y". Of particular note is host Danny Parkers weekly closing line "I'll see you cunts next week".

The black metal band Cradle of Filth printed a shirt depicting a nun masturbating with a crucifix on the front, and on the back, in big white letters, reads: "JESUS IS A CUNT". This shirt has sparked much controversy, mostly in their home country of Great Britain, where a fan was arrested for wearing it in public, as was their former drummer. They continue to print the shirt, championing their right to free speech.

Variants and derivatives

Various euphemisms, minced forms and in-jokes derive from or signify "cunt".

Spoonerisms

• Cunning Runt - spoonerism derived from the punchline of a well-known joke.
• Condescending Runt is used by Linda La Hughes in Gimme Gimme Gimme.
• "Cunning Stunt" - was popularized by Doug Mulray, Australian radio personality in the 1980s and is still in circulation - 'I'm a cunning stunt'. "Cunning Stunts" is also the name of a Metallica CD/Video compilation release.
• Kenny Everett introduced a female character in his TV shows, which aired during "family viewing time", called Cupid Stunt and got away with it

Initialisms

• Cambridge University Netball Team - This may be apocryphal that this ever existed as a title, also:
• City University of Newcastle upon Tyne did exist at its inception, but was only noticed when the stationery was produced...
• Caring Understanding Nineties Type - As in "He's not so much a Sensitive New Age Guy (SNAG) as a Caring Understanding Nineties Type (CUNT)."
• See you next Tuesday - C U Next Tuesday. Originating from the London area, but now having more widespread use, especially within the south of England. An example of usage would be: "Oh that bloke is such a see you next Tuesday". (It must be noted, however, that not many situations arise where one would want to refer to another as a cunt and not use the term itself.) Other versions include "See you next time" and "Catch you next Tuesday" (the latter appearing in an episode of "American Dad")
• Can't Understand Normal Thinking - "That woman has a problem, she just can't understand normal thinking".
• "Civilian Under Naval Training." - US Naval term.
• "Computer User, Non-Technical" - Used in the information technology field, referring to unsavvy users.
• Clark Unleashed Nineteen Tigers - reference to 80s BBC travelling lion tamer Daniel Clark.
• In Chewin' the Fat, a Scottish comedy programme, a character was wearing a shirt which spells C.N.U.T, which makes fun of F.C.U.K shirts (French Connection United Kingdom)
• Committe for Unstigmatised Nationally Televised Swearing - Used in the artswhole swearing special

Puns

• See You, Auntie - When said aloud, the speaker sounds as if he's spelling "cunt". Published in the liner notes of Tool's album, Ænima.
• Mike Hunt - an average name which when said quickly can sound like "my cunt". Used in a scene from the movie Porky's, and also a character in the BBC radio comedy Radio Active. It is also used in a scene of the book Trainspotting.
• "Cunt-ry music loving lady" - from comedy series Arrested Development
• The punk band NOFX say something similar on their song "Together on the sand" when the singer says "I had my finger up her, country music played on the radio"
• "Country matters" - from Shakespeare's Hamlet, as described above
• Mick Hunt - Lords Cricket Ground curator
• Stephen Fry famously defined countryside on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue as the act of 'murdering Piers Morgan'.
• Also in 'Chewin the Fat', a man would be out walking with his young son and would pass someone, for example, in an expensive cabriolet with the music blaring, and say, "Some people can and some people can't. He's a can't" (Sounds like "cunt" with a Glasgow accent)
• English Country Tunes by Michael Finnissy composed in 1977, the title being a play on the words 'English Cunt re: Tunes'.
• Two lines from the animated series Family Guy, where Brian is talking to Quagmire about what's written on the side of his winnebago:

Brian: "Isn't 'country' supposed to be spelled with a 'o'?"
Quagmire: "Nope!"

Rhyming slang

Various Cockney rhyming slang forms, which are considered only mildly risqué

• Berk - short for "Berkeley Hunt". "Berkshire Hunt"
• A "little All Quiet On The Western" was a phrase used by Australian TV personality Graham Kennedy, employing rhyming slang.
• Roger Hunt - in reference to the 60's Liverpool and England forward.
• "Isaac Hunt" - another name that sounds like I's a cunt/I say cunt, or in colloquial slang in Northern England, sounds like 'He's a cunt' (pronounced eyes a cunt')
• Gareth Hunt - actor popular in the Seventies
• James Blunt - very new rhyming slang gaining acceptance in Britain. "He's a bit of a James"
• "Robert Munt" - New rhyming slang, popular in the south east of England after the well known and notorious butcher Robert Munt. Many people now use the term "Munts" as a more polite way of referring to somebody as a "cunt" also the term "Robert" is used as in "He is such a Robert".
• "Struggle and Grunt" Used in the movie Green Street

Others

• Acid cunt a term of endearment used among those attending raves or other events where acid house may be played.
• Silly bunt - a joke in a Monty Python sketch, where a man with a speech impediment replaces the initial "c" consonant with "b" in all words.
• Punctuation cunt - drawn like so: \|/ (a type of ASCII art related to the emoticon)
• The name of the American grindcore band Anal Cunt. Upon getting signed to a bigger label, they shortened their name to AxCx.

Other meanings

The word forms part of some technical terms used in seafaring and other industries.

A cunt splice is a form of knot used in rigging on ships. In recent times its name has been bowdlerised to "cut splice".

The Ashley Book of Knots ISBN 0-385-04025-3, 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 had been considered offensive.

A Dictionary of Sea Terms, published in 1841, defines the cuntline differently, as "the space between the bilges of two casks, stowed side by side. Where one cask is set upon the cuntline between two others, they are stowed bilge and cuntline." The "bilge" of a barrel or cask is the widest point, so when stored together the two casks would produce a curved V-shaped gap.

U.S. military men refer privately to a common uniform item, a folded cover (hat) with a seam at the front and back, an opening along the top, and major and minor invagination, as a cunt cap. The proper name for the item is garrison cap or overseas cap, depending on the organization in which it is worn. The cap is widely available as an ex-USSR (and satellite state) surplus item in Army/Navy stores. The Russian name being a "pilotka".It is also in use in the United States Armed Forces, notably in the United States Air Force as part of its dress uniform and service dress uniform, and in the U.S. Army from World War I until the 1960s. The cap has also been part of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps uniforms, and was used by the Boy Scouts of America up until the mid 1980s when the uniform was redesigned.

The term cunt hair is used as a measurement in construction; an expansion of 'to move it a hair' or very small distance. A color may be added as an adjective to further define the degree of adjustment, such as RCH (red cunt hair as a coarse adjustment, a 'blonde' one would be a finer adjustment). These terms in electronics and metrology commonly refer to .001 and .0001 increments, with the "red cunt hair" being the finer increment and no reference to a 'blonde cunt hair' is used. The term is also used liberally in restaurant kitchens. A prep cook may ask his Sous chef or head chef how thin he should slice a certain vegetable. The chef may respond "Thinner than a cunt hair!" The term cunt hair is also used by aircraft mechanics when trying to make minor adjustments to castellated nuts or attempting to line up drilled holes while installing screws or bolts. If one mechanic can see what the other is doing, they'll say "move it to the left just a 'cunt hair.'"

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

"Those words ('bullshit', 'prick', 'pissed off', 'fuck you', and 'cunt') are now liberated from shame. They're in the dictionary now, finally. And the reason they came to the dictionary, finally, was through continual usage. Enough guys said to their wives 'YOU CUNT!' Pow! And that's why it's in the dictionary now: C-u-n-t."

• Lenny Bruce, discussing the 1961 Webster's Third New International Dictionary

"I use the word cunt a lot, because the only way to get through to the youth of today is to use words that will grab their attention"

• Plan B

External links

• The Etymology of Sexual Slang Terms
• Cunt: A Cultural History
• Yoni Yagna - Celebration of Cunt

Further reading

• Inga Muscio, Cunt: A declaration of Independence
• Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
• Cunt, a 1999 novel by Stewart Home
• Lady Love Your Cunt, 1969 article by Germaine Greer and 1993 song by UK band SMASH
• The Kunda an article by Michael Lohr

• Pejorative terms for people
• Profanity
• Sexual slang