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Cunt is an English language vulgarism most commonly used in reference 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". Generally, cunt is considered an obscene word, and therefore greatly offensive, although, as with all verbal profanities, some speakers regard it as merely informal or even a term of endearment. Calling someone a cunt is generally considered impolite at best, and often as extremely offensive, though this varies between countries and social groupings. The word has neutral significance in the colloquial and technical speech of nautical and other occupational traditions.

Cunt is sometimes used as a nonspecific derogatory epithet in referring to either sex. In British and Australian English it usually refers to a male (the Macquarie Dictionary defines cunt as "a despicable man"). Its usage as vulgar insult is, however, 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:

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. 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 *gneH₂/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, Ireland and among some Europeans who speak English as a second language, 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.

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 , 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, 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 LGBT people . 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, who had previously published a magazine article entitled Lady, Love Your Cunt, 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.

Usage: pre-20th century

Cunt has been in common use in its anatomical meaning since at least the 13th century. While the 1811 Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue listed the word as "a nasty name for an amazing thing" 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".

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" . 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." 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") 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....".

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.'") 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.

Usage: modern

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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.

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. 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.

Usage by Country

Usage in Great Britain

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".

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 Ireland & Scotland

Cunt is used extensively in Scotland and Ireland in a non-derogatory way to simply refer to a person when no insult is intended. For example, "Any cunt kens that!" or "That poor old cunt was just minding his business when the bus ran over him" or "there's no cunt here," to mean "there's no one here". There is also the diminutive "cunteen". It can be used inoffensively for greeting people, for example "hey cunt" or for requesting an action from someone "c'mere (come here) cunt".

To address someone merely as cunt without context would be considered very aggressive.

"ya cunt" is also a word used profusely as a form of punctuation in the west of Scotland. e.g "whit ye lookin at, ya cunt?" or "ony spare change for ma bus fare tae Kilwinning, ya cunt?"

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 Ireland and Australia, the word cunt remains in America the one word that is so offensive as to be customarily unspeakable. The usage is quite different from other English-speaking countries; it is almost always used to try to insult or offend the other person. 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.

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?". It can also imply that women are useful only for having vaginas and thus serve no purpose save sexual gratification. Also cunt can also be used in the following terms such as "your mum is a cunt" where, in the UK and Australia, to females, but not males is highly offensive.

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

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?"

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 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 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.

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—particularly those of Arab descent—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 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 employed as a term of derision.

Also used in the expression "I'll cunt you up," meaning "I'll make you look like a cunt" (i.e., through physical or verbal humiliation). Another phrase originating in London is "cunted in the bastard" meaning to have been hit in a non-specific area of the body.

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:

20th Century Literature

• Lady Chatterley's Lover - in D. H. Lawrence's 1928 novel, Mellors, the gamekeeper and lover, tries delicately to explain the definition of the word to Lady Constance Chatterley. The novel was the subject of a UK prosecution for obscenity in 1961 against its publishers, Penguin Books which failed. Since then, the word has rarely been controversial on the written page.
• In Revolt into Style, George Melly's recollections of the 1950s & 1960s UK jazz era, he recounts his arrival at a band rehearsal wearing a drape coat. When asked why he was wearing it, George said "Cab Calloway wears one", eliciting the response "He must be a cunt". No complaints of this use of the word are recorded.

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. See, for a classic example, here:. Nevertheless, there have been occasions when, particularly in a live broadcast, the word has been aired outsside editorial control:

• The Frost Programme, broadcast live on November 7th 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. The programme was recorded, and the clip has since been reshown many times.
• Bernard Manning first said on television the much-copied line "They say you are what you eat. I'm a cunt."
• This Morning in 2000, broadcast the word, used by the model Caprice Bourret while being interviewed live about her role in The Vagina Monologues

However, over the last two decades or so, "cunt" has crossed over from accidental to purposeful use:

• Jerry Springer - The Opera was shown by the BBC in January 2005. The performance included the phrase "cunting, cunting, cunting, cunting cunt" (a description of the Devil). However, more controversy was generated by the Christ claiming that He "Might be 'a bit gay'" than by the use of "cunt".
• In 2007 the Channel 4 series "Peep Show" used the word to describe getting drunk: "Lets get cunted".

In late July/early August of 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. In the US, despite the First Amendment, the broadcast use of "cunt" is still rare. Nevertheless, the word has slowly infiltrated into American broadcasting:

• The HBO TV shows Oz, 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 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. Notably, in the Oz episode Losing Your Appeal, the word was used 8 times in one minute.
• In the Fox network's popular series Family Guy, the character Glenn Quagmire, who has a reputation of being a sex addict, plans to tour America and "just do" women in every state. Brian sees a sign that Quagmire has painted on the side of his vehicle and asks, "Hey Quagmire, isn't 'country' spelled with an O?" to which he replies, "Not on this tour!"

Elsewhere, "cunt" was used extensively in the New Zealand cult TV series "Back Of The Y". Of particular note is host Danny Parker's weekly closing line "I'll see you cunts next week".

Film

• The Exorcist (1973) — "cunting hun", "cunting daughter", and "goddamned cunt"
• Death Wish (1974) — Freak #1 (Jeff Goldblum): "Goddamn rich cunt! I kill rich cunts!"
• Taxi Driver (1976)
• Saturday Night Fever (1977) — Tony Manero (John Travolta) to Annette (Donna Pescow) : "So now you're a cunt")
• An Innocent Man (1989) — a female character is referred to as "your crusading cunt of a wife"
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991) — Agent Starling meets Dr. Hannibal Lecter for the first time and passes the cell of "Multiple Miggs", who says to Starling: "I can smell your cunt." "I, myself, cannot", replies Lecter when told of the claim. In versions of the film edited for TV the word is dubbed with the word scent.
• Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) — Ricky Roma (Al Pacino) says to John Williamson (Kevin Spacey): "You stupid fucking cunt, you idiot!"
• Trainspotting (1996) — the word was used to reflect the language of the subcultures portrayed.
• The Way of the Gun (2000) includes the dialogue "Shut that cunt's mouth or I'll come over there and fuck-start her head" in the opening sequence.
• Run Ronnie Run (2002) has Jack Black portraying a chimney sweep who sings "The Golden Song" with the line "a kick in the cunt".
• Sexy Beast (2000) — Don Logan uses the term "I gotta change my shirt, it's sticking to me. I'm sweating like a cunt".
• Football Factory (2004)

Fred (Tamer Hassan): "Don't get lemon Bill, it don't suit ya."

Billy Bright (Frank Harper): "Spell it, you cunt."

Fred: "C-u-n-t, Cunt."

Billy Bright: "I meant 'lemon', soppy bollocks."

• Shaun of the Dead (2004) — Ed's casual use of the word in "Can I get any of you cunts a drink?" is cited by Liz as an example of one of the problems in her relationship with Shaun.
• Kill Bill, Volume 2 (2004) — the dying Bill makes some affectionate remarks to the Bride but concludes that she "can be a real cunt."
• Inside Man (2006) — Mayor of New York (Peter Kybart): "You're a magnificent cunt, aren't you, Miss White?" to Madeleine White (Jodie Foster).
• The Departed (2006) — Det. Sgt. Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) asks Officer William Costigan Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) whether he thinks the Boston Police Undercover Unit are "cunts".
• Crank (2006) — Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) asks "Does it look like I got cunt written on my head? Who do you think you are fucking with?"
• Hostel: Part 2 (2007) — Drunk Italian (Peter Bláha)to Beth (Lauren German): "I knew you were a tease you fucking cunt"

Comedy

In their Derek and Clive dialogues, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, particularly Cook, arguably made the word more accessible in the UK. In the 1976 sketch "This Bloke Came Up To Me", the word is used 31 times in the course of two minutes

The word is also used extensively by British comedian Roy 'Chubby' Brown, which ensures that his stand-up act has never been fully shown on UK television.

The word appears on George Carlin's list of the seven dirty words.

Popular Music

• Australian comedy musician Kevin Bloody Wilson alleges that while visiting Canada, he was told by the Canadian government that he was not allowed to say "cunt" in Canada. Wilson walked on to the stage in Toronto and sang the song You Can't Say Cunt In Canada.
• Metal band Cradle of Filth printed a shirt depicting (on the front) a nun masturbating with a crucifix, and (on the back) in big white letters, "JESUS IS A CUNT". This shirt has sparked much controversy, mostly in their native UK, where a fan was arrested for wearing it in public, as was their former drummer in Russia. They continue to print the shirt, championing their right to free speech.
• American Grindcore band Anal Cunt fronted by Seth Putnam have also deliberately courted controversy.
• Jarvis Cocker used the word frequently in his song, "Running the World" Jarvis - Track 14.
• Death metal band Cannibal Corpse wrote and recorded a song, "Entrails Ripped From A Virgin's Cunt", which can be heard on their album Tomb of the Mutilated
• During a 1977 concert at New York's Bottom Line, Carlene Carter introduced a song by stating, "If this song don't put the cunt back in country, I don't know what will." The comment was quoted widely in the press, and Carter spent much of the next decade trying to live the comment down.
• Australian 'rock' band TISM (This is Serious Mum), released a track titled 'I Might Be A Cunt But I'm Not A Fucking Cunt' in 1997 on their album www.tism.wanker.com.

Variants and derivatives

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

Spoonerisms

• Cunning Stunt - Apocryphally from a dirty joke: "What's the difference between a circus and a strip club?"- "The circus has a bunch of cunning stunts..."; however its first documented appearance is an album title by the English band Caravan who released "Cunning Stunts" in July 1975; the title was later used by Metallica for a CD/Video compilation release, and in 1992 the Cows released an album with the same title.
• Kenny Everett played a vapid starlet, Cupid Stunt in his ITV television program.
• Graffiti appeared around Sydney at times claiming, "John Hunt is a Coward", a reference to former Australian prime minister John Howard.
• Al Murray hosted a British television comedy game show Fact Hunt.

Acronyms

• There are various apocryphal stories concerning academic establishments, such as

Cambridge University Netball Team

Cambridge University National Trust Society

Nottingham Trent University almost being called the "City University of Nottingham Trent"

Newcastle Polytechnic initially planning to change its name to City University of Newcastle upon Tyne (instead of Northumbria University, which it is now named)

Curtin University of New Technology - supposedly the name initially proposed for Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia.

• 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")
• "Civilian Under Naval Training." - US Naval term.
• "Computer User, Non-Technical", "Computer User Needs Training", "Completely Unqualified Non-Technical Staff" - 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)
• Committee for Unstigmatised Nationally Televised Swearing - Used in the artswhole swearing special
• Citizens Uniting Negating Technology For Life And People's Safety - On a billboard in the PlayStation Portable Game, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
• Critical Update Notification - the initial name for the Microsoft Windows Update engine, introduced with Windows 98. The agent was therefore often referred to in Microsoft literature as the Critical Update Notification Tool. This term was eventually dropped in favour of Automatic Updates, although references to it can still be found on Microsoft web sites.

Puns

• See You, Auntie - When said aloud in a North American accent, the speaker sounds as if he's spelling "cunt". Published in the liner notes of Tool's album, Ænima.
• Mike Hunt - Used in a scene from the movie Porky's, and also a character in the BBC radio comedy Radio Active. This also appears in Grand Theft Auto III, where Head Radio DJ Michael Hunt tells his listeners "you can call me Mike". A variant of this, applicable to the Scottish accent ("Mark Hunt") is also used in a scene of the book Trainspotting.
• "Cunt-ry music loving lady" - from comedy series Arrested Development
• "Cunt-ry Girl, take my hand..." Primal Scream's Country Girl
• 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 - Lord's Cricket Ground curator
• TV comedian Steve Coogan made a number of jokes based around the word. In the second series of BBC 2's 'I'm Alan Partridge,' a scene featured a South African businessman, who had the line, "Alan - you can't," to which Alan Partridge replies, " well there's no need for that!" - playing on the sounding of the word 'can't' when spoken in an Afrikaans accent. In one of Coogan's stand-up routines, as 'Paul Calf', he comments, "They call Jean Claude Van Damme the Muscles from Brussels. Well they do the same with me..... I come from a place in Yorkshire called Munt"
• In the mid-90s, comedian Jasper Carrott - during his mainstream BBC 1 show - commented, whilst talking about cult figures - "Some people have called me a cult..... at least that's what I think they said."
• 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)
• In Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Donna and Gaz are perusing erotic novels when they come across The Count of Monte Cristo. However, Gaz helpfully informs Donna that 'it doesn't say Count'
• "See you next Tuesday", pronounced phonetically "C-U-N(ext)-T(uesday)"
• "Take the 'O' out of Country" - 1980 album by Canadian comedy duo MacLean and MacLean
• In Dead Ringers, Jon Culshaw imitates James Blunt singing You're Beautiful including the alternate words; "And Morrissey keeps telling me James Blunt is rhyming slang".
• As recalled by former Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam:

Never in the House did I use the word which comes to mind. The nearest I came to doing so was when Sir Winton Turnbull, a member of the cavalleria rusticana, was raving and ranting on the adjournment and shouted: "I am a Country member". I interjected "I remember". He could not understand why, for the first time in all the years he had been speaking in the House, there was instant and loud applause from both sides.

• Mark Lamarr used a variation of this same gag on BBC TV's Never Mind The Buzzcocks. "Stuart Adamson was a Big Country member... and we do remember"
• See You in Toledo, euphemism used on radio's "The Don and Mike Show"
• On a first season episode of 30 Rock about Liz being called a word assumed to be "cunt" by a co-worker, an unrelated storyline has Tracy telling Jack, "see you in CT."
• On the TV program Arrested Development, the main character tells his brother to "get rid of the Seaward" (which is the name of a boat), while their mother overhears and assumes he is referring to her, as "the C-word".
• In Donald E. Westlake's "Help I Am Being Held Prisoner," the main protagonist is Harry Koont, generally misheard as hairy cunt, even though Harry helpfully explains that Koont has an umlaut over the o's, thrusting forward the tips of two fingers "as if blinding a midget."
• In Midsomer Murders (The Killings at Badger's Drift), a supercilious character says to Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby "You've got a right constable there"; the pronunciation leaves no doubt as to what is actually meant.

Rhyming slang

• Several celebrities have had their names used as euphemisms, including footballer Roger Hunt, actor Gareth Hunt, singer James Blunt, motor-racing driver James Hunt and Australian television fishing personality Rex Hunt.
• A canting form, Berk - short for "Berkeley Hunt" or "Berkshire Hunt".
• All Quiet on the Western, a phrase used by Australian TV personality Graham Kennedy
• Silly bunt - in a Monty Python sketch, an idioglossiac man replaces the initial "c" consonants of words with "b".

Colloquialisms

The term cunt hair can be used to signify a very small distance; an expansion of 'to move it a hair'. Slight variations may include 'red cunt hair' or RCH, or 'blonde cunt hair'. A chef may refer to vegetables being sliced 'thinner than a cunt hair' or a mechanic may direct a colleague to move a piece of equipment 'to the left just a cunt hair.'

Others

• Acid cunt a term of endearment used among those attending raves or other events where acid house may be played.
• 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.
• Scunthorpe, the county town of North Lincolnshire in England has, in football chants and boisterous humour suffered from a term known as the 'Scunthorpe Problem'. Chants like "There's only one 'cunt' in Scunthorpe", whilst etymologically accurate, have been met with disgust.

Other meanings

The word "cunt" forms part of some technical terms used in seafaring and other industries. See "Ashley Bell"

Nautical usage

A cunt splice is a type of rope splice used to join two lines in the rigging of ships. The two ends are side spliced together with a gap between the two parts, forming a short section where the two lines lay side-by-side when taut. In recent times its name has been bowdlerised to "cut splice".

The Dictionary of Sea Terms, found within Dana's 1841 maritime compendium The Seaman's Friend, defines the word cuntline 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.

The glossary of The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford W. Ashley, first published in 1944, defines cuntlines as "the surface seams between the strands of a rope." Though referring to a different object than Dana's definition, it similarly describes the crease formed by two abutting cylinders.

US military usage

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.

Hot-metal printing

In the traditional hot-metal printing industry, a cunt lead was a term that was formerly used to describe a small additional inter-line gap, usually of less than 1pt. The term is derived from the term leading which describes more generally inter-line gaps (from the strips of lead that were used to provide the separations).

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

Notes and references

1. Online Etymological Dictionary
2. http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Latin/Vocabulary/Latin-Forbidden.html
3. http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2000/december_2000_1.html
4. Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber, (London: Vintage, 1979 (1995)), p16 ISBN 0 09 958811 0.
5. anthologized in Germaine Greer, The Madwoman's Underclothes: Essays and Occasional Writings, (1986)
6. of the Vulgar Tongue, Available on Project Guttenberg
7. Baker, N & Holt, R. (2000). "Towards a geography of sexual encounter: prostitution in English medieval towns", in L. Bevan: Indecent Exposure: Sexuality, Society and the Archaeological Record. Cruithne Press: Glasgow, 187-98
8. http://www.librarius.com/canttran/wifetale/wifetale330-342.htm
9. http://www.4literature.net/Geoffrey_Chaucer/Wife_of_Bath_s_Prologue/3.html
10. Partridge, Eric, Shakespeare's Bawdy, Routledge, London, 2001, p.111
11. Spark notes on Henry [
12. Partridge, Eric, Shakespeare's Bawdy, Routledge, London, 2001, p.110
13. Abbot, Mary, Life Cycles in England, 1560-1720: Cradle to Grave, Routledge, 1996, p.201
14. Ship, Joseph Twadell, The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, JHU Press, 1984, p.129
15. Commentary on Joyce
16. Review of "Lady Chatterley"
17. Script
18. Saturday Night Fever
19. Review
20. News Report
21. Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts Of Fortune Somme And Ancre 1916, Published 2004, Kessinger Publishing. p. 27, 63
22. http://www.theparisreview.org/media/GREEN.pdf#search=%22cunty%20fingers%22
23. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970201/ai_n14088564
24. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1541264,00.html
25. http://web.archive.org/web/20020214201246/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=114876
26. "Beloved Aunt" and "The Shrimp Incident"
27. Emmanuel Levy : Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film Page 118 - NYU Press, 1999; ISBN ISBN 0814751245
28. Saturday Night Fever
29. Trainspotting Quotes on IMDb
30. http://www.caravan-info.co.uk/backcatalogue/
31. Broadcast on ITV1 Tuesday, 18 September 2007
32. A dictionary of slang - "G" - Slang and colloquialisms of the UK.
33. Gareth Hunt is Cockney Rhyming Slang for …
34. Anonymous Dirty Cockney Rhyming Slang Michael O'Mara Books Ltd. ISBN 1-84317-035-3
35. http://www.amatory-ink.co.uk/thesaurus/femalegenitals.htm
36. http://www.everything2.org/index.pl?node_id=99938
37. http://www.odps.org/glossword/index.php?a=term&t=5bb05aacb1afb0a6aa
38. William Falconer, An Universal Dictionary of the Marine (London: Thomas Cadell, 1780), 1243.
39. Richard Henry Dana, Jr., The Seaman's Friend: A Treatise on Practical Seamanship, 14th Edition (Boston: Thomas Groom & Co., 1879; Dover Republication 1997), 104.
40. Clifford W. Ashley, The Ashley Book of Knots (New York: Doubleday, 1944), 598.
41. Examples of Ashley's usage of "cuntline" are found in the descriptions for illustrations #3338 and #3351.

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 (see References above) and 1993 song by UK band SMASH
• The Kunda an article by Michael Lohr

External links

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

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• Pejorative terms for people
• Profanity
• Sexual slang