cunt

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See also: Cúnt

English

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Etymology

From Middle English cunte, queynt, queynte, from Old English *cunte, from Proto-Germanic *kuntǭ. Cognate with West Frisian kunte, Middle Dutch conte (Dutch kont (“butt”)), dialectal Swedish kunta, dialectal Danish kunte, and Icelandic kunta. A relationship to Latin cunnus has not been conclusively shown. Partridge suggests cuneus (“a wedge”).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: kŭnt, IPA(key): /kʌnt/, [kʰʌ̃nt]
  • Audio (AUS)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌnt
  • Hyphenation: cunt

Noun

cunt (countable and uncountable, plural cunts)

  1. (vulgar, countable) The female genitalia, especially the vulva.
    • 1930, D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Chapter 12 (speaking Midlands vernacular, but both Lawrence and his character know standard English)
      An' doesn't ter know? Cunt! It's thee down theer; an' what I get when I'm i'side thee, and what tha gets when I'm i'side thee; it's a' as it is, all on't.
    • 1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 1138:
      Ah! This power-house of human misery and ecstasy, the cunt!
    • 1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 80:
      Blind boys grope out of huge pies, deteriorated schizophrenics pop from a rubber cunt, boys with horrible skin diseases rise from a black pond (sluggish fish nibble yellow turds on the surface).
    • 2004 June 23, Leo Benedictus, “A bit of hanky-panky”, in The Guardian:
      Then there is a drum roll, and I watch open-mouthed as she bends over and produces a string of red cloths from her femininity. "What better way to celebrate 10 years of Camberwell Arts Week than pulling 10 red handkerchiefs out of my cunt?" she asks.
    • 2014, Behemoth, Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel:
      I saw the Virgin's cunt spawning forth the snake
  2. (vulgar, offensive, countable) An extremely unpleasant or objectionable person (in US, especially a woman; in UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand more usually a man).
    • 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 3:
      They call um Sick Boy, no because he’s eywis sick wi junk withdrawal, but because he’s just one sick cunt.
    • 2007, Elazar Barkan, Elizabeth A. Cole, Kai Struve, Shared History, Divided Memory, page 287:
      Vinokur pulled the trigger a second and third time. "You're lying, you Polish cunt!" he screamed.
    • 2009 November 12, Patrick Barkham, “Top Gear: Why We're Mad About the Boys”, in The Guardian:
      He rails against political correctness and health and safety regulations, and earlier this summer was accused of calling Gordon Brown "a cunt" in unbroadcast comments to his Top Gear audience, whom he has also referred to as "oafs".
  3. (Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, vulgar, countable) An objectionable object or item.
    Fix the car? I’ll sort the cunt out at the weekend.
  4. (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, countable, vulgar) An unpleasant or difficult experience or incident.
    • 1980, Stephen King, The Mist:
      The lines were up past the frozen food now; people had to cut through to get what they wanted and there was much excuse-me-ing and pardon-me-ing. “This is going to be a cunt,” Norton said morosely, and I frowned a little.
    • 2016 July 11, Rachel Braier, The Guardian:
      Certain situations just cry out for it – keys breaking in the lock, not being able to find the starting point in a roll of sticky-tape, running out of bin-bags. The kind of everyday annoyances that Alanis Morissette would define as irony are actually cunts as far as I’m concerned.
  5. (vulgar, countable and uncountable) A woman, women, or bottom (i.e. submissive partner, not the top) as a source of sex.
    I’m going to hit the clubs and see if I can get me some cunt.
  6. (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK, vulgar, positive, countable) (with words funny, good) A person (mostly between male friends); compare bastard.
    Yes, I do remember Dave; he was one funny cunt.
    Tom's a good cunt: he fixed my car and didn't even charge me for it!

Usage notes

  • Writing in 1961, Partridge notes the term had been avoided "in written and polite spoken English" since the 15th century and had been considered obscene since around 1700. Partridge further notes the term's absence from the 1932 Universal Dictionary of English and the 1933 Shorter Oxford Dictionary, and he himself bowdlerizes it as c*nt.
  • In many English-speaking countries, "cunt" is considered to be the most offensive swear word: a study by several British broadcasting organizations found that it was the most offensive word, with 96% classing it as severe;[1] a similar study by New Zealand's Broadcasting Standards Authority found that it was the most offensive word there, offending 74% of New Zealanders.[2]

Quotations

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Adjective

cunt

  1. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (LGBT) Amazing or very good.
    • 2022 December 29, PeachyPlumz (on reddit), in "Symmetra is a ‘gay icon’?", Reddit:
      Look at her like how can you not say cunt[,] she's cunt
    • 2023 May 24, cutehammie (on reddit), in "Trans ally Azealia", r/popheadscirclejerk, Reddit:
      she's so CUNT ... like... how can i not say cunt???

References

  1. ^ “"Delete expletives?"”, in (please provide the title of the work)‎[1], accessed 19 February 2015, archived from the original on 2015-09-24
  2. ^ What Not to Swear

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

cunt

  1. Alternative form of cunte

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *kunþaz.

Adjective

cunt

  1. known, familiar

Inflection

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Middle Dutch: cont

Further reading

  • “kunt”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012
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