cunt
English
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 (“arse”)), 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/, [kʰʌ̃ntʰ]
Audio (AUS): (file) Audio (UK): (file) Audio (GA): (file) Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ʌnt
- Hyphenation: cunt
Noun
cunt (countable and uncountable, plural cunts)
- (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, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1138:
- Ah! This power-house of human misery and ecstasy, the cunt!
- 1959, William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, page 68:
- 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, Leo Benedictus, "A bit of hanky-panky", The Guardian, 23 Jun 04:
- 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.
- 1930, D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Chapter 12 (speaking Midlands vernacular, but both Lawrence and his character know standard English)
- (vulgar, offensive, countable) An extremely unpleasant or objectionable person (in US, especially a woman; in UK or Ireland, more usually a man).
- 2009, Patrick Barkham, "Top Gear: Why We're Mad About the Boys", The Guardian, 12 Nov 09:
- 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".
- 2009, Patrick Barkham, "Top Gear: Why We're Mad About the Boys", The Guardian, 12 Nov 09:
- (British, New Zealand, vulgar, countable) An objectionable object or item.
- Fix the car? I’ll sort the cunt out at the weekend.
- (British, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, vulgar) An unpleasant or difficult experience or incident.
- 2016, Rachel Braier, The Guardian, 11 July:
- 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.
- 2016, Rachel Braier, The Guardian, 11 July:
- (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.
- (Australia, New Zealand, British, 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 himself bowdlerizes it as c*nt.
- In many English-speaking countries, "cunt" is 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
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:cunt.
Synonyms
- See Thesaurus:vagina
- (unpleasant person) prick, asshole, bitch, bastard
Derived terms
- Americunt
- asscunt
- boy cunt
- Connecticunt
- Cuntada
- cuntal
- cuntass
- cuntboy
- cuntbucket
- cuntbutt
- cunt cap
- cuntdom
- cunt dropping
- cunted
- cuntface
- cuntfaced
- cuntfest
- cuntfuck
- cuntfucker
- cuntful
- cunthead
- cunthood
- cunt hunt
- cunting
- cuntish
- cunt juice
- cuntless
- cuntlicker
- cuntlicking
- cuntlike
- cunt lips
- cuntlips
- cuntservative
- cunt splice
- cunt-struck
- cuntsucker
- cuntward
- cuntwhore
- cunty
- decunt
- drunk as a cunt
- eat cunt
- encunt
- man cunt
- red cunt hair
- Republicunt
- supercunt
- thundercunt
- uncunt
Translations
genitalia
|
unpleasant or objectionable person
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
References
Anagrams
Middle English
Noun
cunt
- Alternative form of cunte
Old Dutch
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *kunþaz.
Adjective
cunt
Inflection
This adjective needs an inflection-table template.
Derived terms
Descendants
Further reading
- “kunt”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ʌnt
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English vulgarities
- English terms with quotations
- English offensive terms
- British English
- New Zealand English
- Australian English
- Irish English
- English swear words
- en:People
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Old Dutch terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old Dutch terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old Dutch lemmas
- Old Dutch adjectives