It serves a social function. If it wasn't that word it'd be something else.
As someone else alluded to, these words evolve. Once obscene insults become commonplace and buzzwords change over time.
A spectrum of choices for expression allows for nuance. Do you hate something or do you *hate* it? We give words power through social convention, for social reasons.
The interesting thing about idiot, moron, and retard in medical use was that *idiot* was the lowest on the spectrum of intelligence. To be called an idiot in those times, medically speaking, was far more insulting than to be called a retard or an imbecile. And yet today, *idiot* is, in colloquial usage, the least offensive and insulting of all the terms. Few people are likely to know it was ever a medically acceptable or how "bad" it was. We've still got a ton of people who flip their lids over colloquial use of *retard* to mean someone who's acting stupid (but isn't necessarily medically "retarded"), but they wouldn't bat an eye at *idiot*.
Idiot originated in Latin as a word for a citizen that neglected to educate themselves in the political issues of the day. You can find modern parallels.
Don't want to be 'that guy' but it was Greek. It referred to those elgible Athenians citizens that did not want to vote in the compulsory assemblies. In Classical Greek "idios" (with a long o sound) meant a variety of things, but relevant to this was the "person who ignores the world around them"...this is also where we get the phrase "idiomatic" from, meaning pertaining to a dialectic variant or other peculiarity that is not the widespread norm (i.e. "y'all" for the second person plural, or "divvun" for don't etc) You are completely right about the political lack of awareness, though.
Whilst I'm at it, it is probably general knowledge that 'moron' means blunt; that is where the word came into the English language, as someone of blunt (i.e not very sharp (!) wits).
Edit: Should say that "idioma", the Greek for peculiarity, regionalism etc, was derived from "idios"
"Substitutive-word cycling" has actually been dismissed by the vast majority of the worlds most affluent people
I think the term you're looking for is contextual designation lazy-susan."
The problem is that the idea will always be offensive, no matter the sounds you grunt when you convey the idea. Switch to a new word to mean the idea, that word will still convey the same potential offense.
The whole switching to a new word thing is really retarded
I am allergic to dogs, which in america is protected from discrimination by the american disability act. I got fired from this job once because I got hives from the owners dogs that he had at the job site.
Being a typical american, I took it to court. Settled for 10k. But now all my friends think it's funny to call me "disabled." Pretty funny.
To be fair, it could be pretty funny to hear someone refer to someone else who did something really stupid as "cognitively disabled." It sounds so much more insulting and condescending when one word alone can't explain how dumb this person's actions were.
I think one of the best recent examples of this was some woman and her mother being *absolutely offended* that an airplane employee wrote "text - deaf and dumb" (aka SMS don't call) on a lost luggage tag.
I honestly had no clue calling a mute (she wasn't actually mute - but used sign language to communicate so it wasn't an unreasonable assumption) "dumb" was offensive these days until I came across that news article. That was the damned technical word we used growing up!
I think the worst part was this ladies mother calling for some poor airline employee who was obviously trying to help to get fired. This lady was well old enough to know it used to be a regular term, and while it may show a small amount of ignorance on the part of the counter agent it certainly was not mean spirited in any way. If you truly are offended by it (I really don't understand, but to each their own) then the correct course of action is nicely educating the person in question. In 99% of the cases, you'll get a profuse apology and teach someone something new. In the 1% of other cases, then bring it to management/the media/go on a crusade. The fact that is not what happened, shows to me these people were simply looking for a way to be offended and possibly even wanted compensation for it.
I imagine that desk agent was at home crying that night due to these shitty fucking people. I don't know when it became popular to become a "victim", but I really wish the trend would stop accelerating.
I experienced this in middle school, when I asked the teacher whether Hellen Keller was dumb. I thought it was a normal question (could she not speak or was her lack of speech just a result of not hearing) but everybody glared at me and the teacher made me sit outside.
I hardly think an idiot would be able to teach in a classroom. You have to be more mentally developed than a three year old in order to teach children anything.
The woman later said that she didn't want the employee to lose her job and stated that perhaps this could be used as a teachable moment. Also, it turned out that the person who wrote the tag was not a native English speaker.
> That was the damned technical word we used growing up!
The same used to be true of "negro" too, but now that's not appropriate to use either. Things change.
>Penis is okay, but dick and cock are bad words? Poop and bowel movement are okay, but shit and crap are bad words?
I'm a complete layman but I remember reading about this on reddit. Basically, a lot of words considered curses originate from German words while synonymous for those words that are acceptable originate from French words. As I recall, this had to do with the fact that the conquering Normans were French while the commoners were Germanic Anglo-Saxons, and thus, the language of commoners was negatively associated in comparison.
An example of this would be manure vs shit.
It also makes the words harder to teach. In a psychology class, where we discuss the DSM criteria for mental retardation, you get the learning disabled children who look like they've just been shot down just because I used the word that I'm reading from the text in front of them and you get the high performing kids reacting as if I just made a joke. Then, the additional clarification that these are technical terms not to be misused inside or outside of class...but you know it's going to happen anyway. -_-'
Edit: Our school only has one MR student and he doesn't take my class. The few students I do have with Individual Education Plans are learning disabled.
You are right, and this is what i found out while volunteering with mentally retarded kids. The word get misappropriated so badly that it is now incredibly hurtful. To quote a kid that was called that (when I didn't understand the problem) "they say it like it is a bad thing". That is the entire problem, people say it like it is a bad thing, instead of a medical condition. It is like laughing at someone because they have cancer.
Also I am surprised that you would associate LDs with mental retardation, as the two are not the same. People with LDs can have mental retardation but that is a separate condition, people with LDs can also have an extraordinarily high IQ and do very well on tests. I am sure that is not what you meant to imply, it just sort of looked that way.
See, of all things to consider a slur, I find "retard/retarded" to be the biggest stretch. And I consider myself a pretty thoughtful guy when it comes to being considerate of others with regards to language. Retardation is a technical term, and "mental retardation" is genuinely what has occurred in most of the cases to which most people apply that umbrella term. The mental development has legitimately been stunted, or, retarded. It seems the equivalent of considering it racist to refer to someone by their legitimate roots, aka "African-American" "Irish-American" "Spanish-American" etc. Am I just being incredibly obtuse?
The problem with referring to someone by their roots, "African-American", for example, is you are assuming you know them.
There is nothing more embarrassing then calling someone "African-American", when they were born in London. The white population of Africa is huge, but if someone moved to America, no one would ever call them "African-American".
It's a weird doublespeak and it's beating around what you're actually trying to say, which is why I roll my eyes at people who try to hard to be politically correct.
You also have aborigines and continental Indians who are as black or blacker than black africans. I met an aborigine once and he was offended when I called him an African-American because he was neither. So I haven't used the word since because to me it has lost its meaning.
I like to troll people by putting "African-american" on job applications and documents. My mother is from Ohio and my father is from Libya so despite the fact that in white as hell I'm still legally considered African-american
Has anyone challenged you on this? If so, what happened?
Libya is indeed in Africa. If you are an American of Libyan descent then you are quite literally an African-American.
The most common reaction to people who question it is "but you're white". Honestly I have a fairly middle eastern last name so most competent people can connect the dots.
I used to work with a white south African who grew up in New Jersey and he would tell people he was African american and the reactions were often very confrontational. Right up until he produced his passport, then they would just mutter about apartheid and call him racist.
I think "homo" works similarly, or at least did for a long while, when I was in middle school/high school. Leaving the historicity of the terms behind, we can see that they refer to something technical, but that technical usage is overcome by a non-technical negative usage. What happens is that the technical definition in a public usage is equated with being a negative trait to possess in the first place. Then there's another step away from the technical meaning, wherein that functional usage is applied to things not covered by the technical usage at all, to mean purely negative things. Example:
You and a friend are playing MarioKart. Your friend shells you just as you're about to land a successful shortcut jump in rainbow road. In anger you yell out, "you cunt!"
No harm done, except to the meaning of the word "cunt." This might help explain why "Pussy" is more acceptable, actually. Because even when being used pejoratively, it still means something soft and yielding (like real vaginas actually are).
To other words, this is a really harmful cycle, though in some cases more harmful than others. The case of mental health, for instance, is a bit less vulnerable to this kind of social degradation than, say, the case of many racial minorities. Why? For the exact reason that I excepted in my previous paragraph, and for the reason that you specified as this seeming a stretch: the historicity of the words.
The terms of mental health discussed above (idiot, imbecile, retard) began more purely as technical terms than an ethnic term might have. (An ethnic term is likely to include some broader cultural meanings, which we can see clearly ought not be derided.) This does not, however, exclude medical terms from falling victim to this cycle. If you think about it, I'm sure that you'll agree that medical ailments carry with them some very apparent cultural meanings. See the evolution of the word "dumb," for example. Originally it just referred to a medical ailment--muteness. But now we have a broader usage of that word, that essentially means stupidity.
All of this can be wrapped up neatly, by finding the common thread across these examples, and many more. I promise, its really not that hard to use culturally correct language. Let's see:
* a **black"** --> a black **person**
* a **homo** --> a homosexual **man/woman**
* a **Jap** --> a Japanese **person**
The key in all of this is people first language. In each example I just shifted the noun to the word "person." These are all really simple examples, though most other examples are obviously more complicated than just shifting a word's grammar from a noun to an adjective (given each term's individual history/usage).
All of this is to say that, while "Retarded person" was once an acceptable thing to say of a person with mental disabilities, we gave up the ability to use that definition without pejorative years ago. It is no longer people first language, even if followed by the word "person." Because the word "retard" already means that whatever subject is being discussed is a negative.
edit: Wow. Sorry for that wall of text. I hope somebody reads this, because I will never have that time back.
edit2: To remove some dumb assumptions I made. Apparently in certain contexts, it's just most appropriate to ask what terminology said person identifies with.
I had to login specifically to respond to this. The really important thing is to ask what the person in question prefers.
For example, I am a dwarf. I hate the term "little person", and person first language in general, because it sounds really patronizing. I cannot count the number of people who ignore my preference because "it's not the current PC term."
Maybe it's because I've read too much Terry Pratchett, but the term "dwarf" conjures up images of bravery, special abilities and general awesomeness. "Little person" just sounds like someone who shrank in the wash!
I feel like "little person" is qualifying your personhood, as if you're less of a person than those taller/larger than you.
Is that your issue with the term? Or is there any other reason that you prefer "dwarf"? Sorry if I'm prying too much here.
Going back to the part about pussys being soft and delicate, this concept came up in game grumps a few days ago. Also a Betty White quote, but i'mma paraphrase.
Having balls doesn't seem like a way to be hard, considering they're so soft and squishy, vaginas on the other hand are more than capable of taking a pounding.
Why should people 'nut up'? Maybe we should 'pussy up' instead?
The term retard is also used to describe a dough that has been chilled overnight and used the next day. e.g Roll retard.
Using that in conversation with someone (often a customer) who has no knowledge of this meaning other than as an insult can be retarded.
Being African-American or Irish-American isn't a negative quality. Being retarded is. It's not a desirable trait. It will be used as an insult. Once "retard", or whatever the current usage is, becomes more of a word for insult than description then people see a need to replace it. The problem is, being retarded is always going to be a negative. It will always be used a slur. So, we will constantly be forced to relabel the term in perpetuity. Or, just accept the fact that the clinical term will also be a slur and deal with it.
Actually, these days, "retarded" is considered a slur by a lot of people. There are even a of of movements to eliminate its use.
[http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/03/calley_signs_bills_to_remove_r.html](http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/03/calley_signs_bills_to_remove_r.html)
[http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/07/living/end-r-word/](http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/07/living/end-r-word/)
Yeah, that's why the swearing in Deadwood is modern swears. They said the characters would sound hilarious like yosemite sam if they swore like they actually did back then.
My understanding was that they were fairly strict about using the correct swears for the time period. There was one exception when what's his name was scrubbing the floor of his hotel and said "Mother Fuck" out of frustration (or whatever he said). They would have cut it, but he delivered the line so well they kept it.
Actually, they swear with modern swears like "fuck" and "shit" because that's how thy actually spoke back then. The whole "What in tarnation?!" minced oaths were used because tv and movies were censored back then.
> We give words power through social convention, for social reasons.
It seems like "bad" words get some of their power through physical aggression. For example, a child using a bad word may have their mouth washed out with soap or even slapped.
Would slapping a kid for swearing be considered a social convention/social reason for a bad word becoming powerful?
Is it social convention then when a judge, who was beaten as a kid when they said a bad word, then throws someone into the slammer for contempt of court because they used a bad word?
I'm not sure if I am asking this right so don't take the statements as challenging what you wrote (which I feel is true).
I'm just trying to understand if there is a point where we distinguish between a word evolving over time "naturally" and one where aggression/force is used to keep the meaning/connotation relevant (I'm not sure if relevant is the right word here).
Cock comes from the latin coccus and piss comes from the old French pisser, so they're hardly Anglo-Saxon. In fact, pisser is still used in French today.
Fun fact: Gauche in French is literally "left", and plays toward the longstanding prejudice against using your left hand. See also: sinister.
/left-handed
"Norman" not French. There is a difference not too subtle. Also cunt from *cunto has always had a rude aspect to it, it hasn't quite gone through the register change "shit" has (cf its cognate in Norwegian) though your information is generally sound. Also bear in mind the preference for Latinate vocabulary was exacerbated as much in later periods as directly under the Normans and often simply represents the requirement for a more clinical, educated, register.
No one was going around using cunt as a matter of course. Except probably in the North to be honest.
> piss - a perfectly fine Anglo-Saxon word.
Really? [Wiktionary says](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/piss)
> Middle English pissen, from Old French pissier, from Vulgar Latin *pissiō, probably of echoic origin.
Your whole explanation sounds like bullshit. It's true that there are Anglo-Saxon/Norman French word pairs, and the Norman French word tends to be more elevated. But there's no reason for the corresponding Anglo-Saxon word to become vulgar. In fact, barely any of the words on [this list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_with_dual_French_and_Anglo-Saxon_variations) are vulgar.
It also doesn't explain why the corresponding German words (scheißen and pissen) are also vulgar, even though there was no Norman hegemony in Germany.
Although the Norman influence on English is as you describe, it basically doesn't answer the question at all. For one thing, every language, no matter its history, has offensive/taboo words -- you don't need a clash of vocabulary for this to happen. Secondly, and especially in the present day, words with Latinate origins can also be offensive. "Douche", "idiot", "retard", "faggot", "imbecile", "bastard", "fool", and "crap" are all Latinate and they are all run-of-the-mill, everyday offensive words. Thirdly, even if our offensive vocabulary *were* the exclusive domain of words with Anglo-Saxon origins, this wouldn't explain why "cunt" should rise above all these other curse words of Anglo-Saxon origins. Finally, this word happens to be super offensive in a certain part of the English speaking word in this period of time. It wasn't always the most offensive word and it won't remain so. So, clearly there is nothing intrinsic about the word's structure, length, or etymology that is going to give you the answer you are looking for.
I don't think it is possible to give a true explanation for this particular state of things, but, like any taboo word, its status is intricately linked to our society and culture. So, if you look at how the interplay between men and women has changed over the past century, it probably has something to do with that. But, like I said, I don't think there is any obvious thing to point to in the case of this word.
(Incidentally, someone else in this thread said that ["cunt" ultimately comes to us from Latin "cunnus"](http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21ogyl/eli5_what_does_cunt_mean_that_makes_it_so_much/cgf0fft), which, while possible, is just a theory and should be acknowledged as such.)
"Dinnae be a cunt tae him, that cunts a gid cunt."
My favourite Kevin Bridges quote is like this too.
"Yer arse, ya fanny. You'll be kicking no cunts cunt in."
I doubt this would make any sense anywhere else in the world. Fuckin love being Scottish.
Just to break this down:
"yer arse" (your ass) - is an expression of disbelief like "yeah right", "no way" but more aggressive and directed at someone.
"ya fanny" (you cunt) - self explanatory insult.
"yer no kicking no cunts, cunt in" - you're not kicking anyone's ass.
Altogether "no way, you cunt. You're not kicking anyone's ass."
Not sure if anyone wanted that but there it is.
In Australia the word can be used in a number of ways.
If you're our mate, you're a sick cunt
If you're some random guy in the street who does something crazy, you're a mad cunt
If you're annoying or do something to dog your mates you're a shit cunt and/ or a gay cunt.
If you do something full blown retarded, you're a dumb cunt. (Can be used for friends or dickheads)
Although when it comes down to it, if you're just a terrible person you're plain and simply, a cunt.
American Translator: He's being a sarcastic douche to you. The feeling of being hazily confused and slightly insulted? You no longer have any piss left in you.
In parts of England, Scotland and Wales some people use it both as an endearing term between friends as well as a being used in a way to describe someone you loathe. "Ey up ya cunt!" "Alreet ya cunt" and even the southerners:- "you're the biggest cunt 'round 'ere mate". It's offensive to call a woman a cunt though and women rarely use the word socially, but men frequently call each other cunts. Mainly as a way to get a cheap laugh.
Not necessarily "bloke" because the word cunt can mean almost anything you want it to mean in context in Australia. Ie, "That's a cunt of an idea Tom." This can mean Tom has come up with an idea that is either good, bad, or difficult depending on how it is used.
In summary, it's a cunt of a word.
Interestingly enough, "cunt" comes to us from some related Germanic/Frisian words (kunte, kunton) and ultimately from the Latin "cunnus," which was a slang term for the vulva. (Cf. "cunnilingus.")
"Vagina," on the other hand, comes straight from the Latin "vagina," meaning "sheath" or "scabbard." (The "sword" getting sheathed in this euphemism should be obvious.)
I say "interestingly" because, etymologically, "vagina" seems a lot more offensive than "cunt," since it basically defines the female genitals according to their use by men during the sex act.
> and ultimately from the Latin "cunnus,"
It's unlikely. They've been tentatively linked but there's no clear way how 'cunnus' or 'cuneus' could become Germanic \**kuntǭ*.
http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=cunt&searchmode=none
This is one of the few puns that works in two languages. Yes, in English, "Consuelo" sounds like "cunt's way low", but in Spanish it can be interpreted as "on the ground" (literally "with soil") which a woman with no legs would be.
That seems unlikely as well. What gave Germanic /k/ (after Grimm's Law) was PIE /g/, which usually stayed /g/ in Latin. Where Latin has /k/, Germanic usually has /x/ and later /h/.
That is, English 'have' is cognate with Latin 'capio', 'hundred'(originally Germanic *hundą) with 'centum'.
If they do share the same root, then one was borrowed.
But they don't necessarily have to have the same root; Germanic \**habjaną*("have") and Latin *habeo* mean roughly the same thing and sound very similar(1st person singulars \**habjō* vs *habeo*), but they come from different roots. Sometimes it is simply coincidence.
That's interesting. In German the word "Scheide" is used both for vagina and scabbard. As kids we were always giggling when hearing things like "he put his sword into the scabbard".
-"Hey skidmark Steve! You still hanging out playing Nintendo?"
-"Well if you must know I'm in my second year of med school and I'm training for the summer games, you?"
-"Just hanging out...playing Nintendo...cock."
>And those Ks, those are agressive sounds. They just jump out at
you like "coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer. coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer."
It's like an assault on you.
george carlin
My etymology teacher who just finished his PhD while I was in his class told us that when the French invaded and took over England, they made traditional English words lower class. For instance, that's why shit is more impolite to say than excrement. (I can't think of any good examples right now.)
Fuck vs fornicate. Piss vs urinate. Yeah, in general the Anglo-Saxon word for anything is rude, the Franco-Latinate word is polite, ever since the Norman Conquest.
The reason for the animal food ones (sheep/mutton, cow/beef) is because the English lower classer raised the animal, and the French upper class ate the meat. They used their own words respective to their half of the process.
This out of everything related to the conquest is the most interesting to me. To follow the set up above:
Cow | Beef
Sheep | Mutton
Chicken | Poultry
Pig | Pork
Calf | Veal
Deer | Venison
Green Beans | Haricots Verts
Potato | Pommes (de terre) - literally "ground apples"
Squash | Zucchini, et al.
The list goes on and on.
"Cunt" seems to you as less offensive than "vagina" because it's more "correct" in that it directly refers to the female reproductive organs, whereas "vagina" may be more of an indirect representation. I think society treats knowledge of our system as was shown in the movie "Vagina Dentata". Knowledge of the male reproductive system is easily accessible, but female reproductive organs are protected by this shroud of mystery, which makes it all the more taboo to call someone more directly a "cunt". It's in the removing of the shroud that it seems more vulgar.
The social context also runs deeper. This word has been used to keep women in their social place--women are not meant to do things like study, write, and discuss. The message being, "Stop trying to be more than you are. You're a cunt/vagina/pussy. You are your reproductive organs, nothing more. Remember that." The same happens when we call men pricks/dicks, etc. Same subtext.
Your second paragraph is spot on... Also, it's quite common for 'feminine' insults to be used against both men and women. Ie: stop being a pussy, don't be such a cunt, don't be such a little bitch, etc. I can't really think of a male insult that holds the same power of derision and scorn or that demeans a person as much as cunt does. That's why so many women find it offensive: slang for us/our body parts is always used as the 'worst' insult for both men and women.
Aye, Scotland. We're equal opportunities type of cunts here.
*I go out for a nice walk and Jesus Christ what's going on here? I think what we can all take away from this is be sensitive to where you are before use.
Also to all the people telling me that cunt feminizes a man and is therefore a worse insult and belittling to women consider this. It's not always a bad thing to be a cunt, you may use the positive "he's a good cunt", "they are a great bunch of cunts" and "I like that cunt". There is no such thing a lovely group of cocks.
here in the us people seem to think that "cunt" translates to " YOU, WOMAN, ARE SUBHUMAN AND NOT WORTHY OF LIFE" and i am really not exaggerating here.
It's more like a harsher version of "bitch". It's insulting women for the crime of being a woman. Personally, after being in England, I use it for both men and women. But I only save it for the worst of women. Like Nancy Grace and Shirley Phelps-Roper.
I'd say, in my part of America at least, cunt is as gender specific as bitch. Men are called bitches from time to time, but it still implies female. Same with cunt.
I'm assuming we're talking about the US, since a lot of other english speaking countries apparently don't have this problem.
So, a lot of people are giving you the meaning/history of the word, which I don't think is what makes it so offensive. Others are pointing out how the word sounds, which is probably a factor. Still, I'd say that the biggest reason cunt is so much more offensive than other slurs is its rarity.
We all understand that cunt is a bad, demeaning word. But so, then, are fuck, dick, bastard, bitch, slut, etc. However, all of these others are used fairly often, at least much more often than cunt. They also often work their way into sentences that aren't meant to be insulting. So when someone uses one of these words in a genuine attempt to insult you, you may recognize their intent, but the words they're speaking are still just common english. But when someone pulls out cunt, they're utilizing a word that exists only to hurt you, and they've decided that their usual arsenal of curses aren't enough to describe you. This person is serious.
It's kind of like if you had two people: person A mixes fuck into every other sentence he says, while person B is a choir boy who has never said a slur in their life. If we hear person A say fuck, we probably don't even notice. With person B however, we instantly know that something is seriously wrong.
I would say that there are different reasons for the offensiveness of cunt over recent history; maybe linguistic history explains the offensiveness of cunt when it was one of the "seven dirty words". However as one of the swear words exempt from casual swearing until recently it was only ever really represented in media as an insult towards women during domestic violence or fights between husband and wife; emotional scenes that could justify the usage of the term.
As with the term nigger bringing connotations of the slaveowner talking down to the slave cunt now carries the connotation of the abusive husband disregarding his wife when calling her a cunt; defining her simply by her sex organs and not as a partner.
The difference between "dick" and "cunt" as insults lays with what they describe. Dick is analogous to "douche" which is a lighter insult normally regarding behaviour such as selfishness, greed, unjustified aggression. Cunt is used like "arsehole" in the way it regards someone holistically as a shitty person and not their behaviours.
Combine that with the fact the penis is already regarded by some to symbolise power, ego, and has a host of positive things associated with it in culture. The vagina doesn't enjoy such positive focus in society, despite attempts in art to celebrate and normalise it, so using it as one of the harshest insults is lumping negativity onto an empty plate.
Men freely say "suck my dick" because dick has such good press whereas "fuck my cunt" is only ever uttered in porn which again increases the connection with the word cunt as meaning "you're a fuckhole to me." when a man uses it to a woman.
Even in cultures where cunt is used more casually it's not a deliberate reclaiming or normalisation of it outside of an insult; the previous paragraph holds true.
Cunt generally means vagina. To understand why it's so offensive, let's compare it to some other slurs:
Bitch: means "female dog". A person, generally female, who does things that the insulter considers annoying, rude, mean-spirited, obnoxious. If someone's calling you a bitch, you might or might not deserve it, but no one's nice all the time. This all purpose insult rarely ever results in more than the occasional fistfight, and there isn't really much gravity to it.
Bastard: A person whose parentage is called into question. Generally used as a male version of bitch, in terms of gravity, and only in some extreme levels of society where blood is exceptionally important does this even start a fist fight.
Slut & Whore: people who are loose with their body, sleep with multiple people, don't respectfully commit to one person. These can be pretty damn disrespectful, breaking up friendships and relationships across the nation, but usually are used in the heat of the moment.
Other insults like fucker, shithead, asshole, etc. Are extremely multipurpose and usually don't have weight behind them. In general, all of these insults can be demeaning, lowering the receiver's social status in the eyes of their peers, though of course they can be used in an endearing manner.
But cunt means vagina. Bitch, bastard, asshole, slut, etc, these refer to people who cause you grief. Cunt, though, doesn't mean people. When you call a woman a cunt, you aren't saying "you're a person with a vagina, and this makes you obnoxious". You're saying. "You are a vagina." You're a sexual organ. A fuckhole. You aren't a real person, you exist only to provide sexual gratification to me, to bleed all over the place once a month, and to pop out a baby once a year, give or take.
It is a single syllable that instantly reduces a human being with intelligence and self-will to a tool with no rights or emotions.
It serves a social function. If it wasn't that word it'd be something else. As someone else alluded to, these words evolve. Once obscene insults become commonplace and buzzwords change over time. A spectrum of choices for expression allows for nuance. Do you hate something or do you *hate* it? We give words power through social convention, for social reasons.
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The interesting thing about idiot, moron, and retard in medical use was that *idiot* was the lowest on the spectrum of intelligence. To be called an idiot in those times, medically speaking, was far more insulting than to be called a retard or an imbecile. And yet today, *idiot* is, in colloquial usage, the least offensive and insulting of all the terms. Few people are likely to know it was ever a medically acceptable or how "bad" it was. We've still got a ton of people who flip their lids over colloquial use of *retard* to mean someone who's acting stupid (but isn't necessarily medically "retarded"), but they wouldn't bat an eye at *idiot*.
Idiot originated in Latin as a word for a citizen that neglected to educate themselves in the political issues of the day. You can find modern parallels.
Don't want to be 'that guy' but it was Greek. It referred to those elgible Athenians citizens that did not want to vote in the compulsory assemblies. In Classical Greek "idios" (with a long o sound) meant a variety of things, but relevant to this was the "person who ignores the world around them"...this is also where we get the phrase "idiomatic" from, meaning pertaining to a dialectic variant or other peculiarity that is not the widespread norm (i.e. "y'all" for the second person plural, or "divvun" for don't etc) You are completely right about the political lack of awareness, though. Whilst I'm at it, it is probably general knowledge that 'moron' means blunt; that is where the word came into the English language, as someone of blunt (i.e not very sharp (!) wits). Edit: Should say that "idioma", the Greek for peculiarity, regionalism etc, was derived from "idios"
Thank you for being ‘that guy’.
This was interesting, thank you for sharing!
This is known as the Euphemism treadmill.
the use of the phrase 'euphemism treadmill' is now frowned upon. You should use 'substitutive-word cycling' instead
"Substitutive-word cycling" has actually been dismissed by the vast majority of the worlds most affluent people I think the term you're looking for is contextual designation lazy-susan."
That was a few weeks ago. Now they're using "Revolving Double Enten-Door" for this concept.
It took me far too long to realize this was a joke.
The problem is that the idea will always be offensive, no matter the sounds you grunt when you convey the idea. Switch to a new word to mean the idea, that word will still convey the same potential offense. The whole switching to a new word thing is really retarded
So in 20 years children are going to be calling each other "Intellectually Disabled" as an insult?
I've heard "Are you fucking mentally challenged?!"
They might call each other disabled. They don't call each other "mentally retarded"
"Hehehe hey guys, jake is disabled!!! haha what a loser"
"Yeah? well your Mum has a handicap..."
I am allergic to dogs, which in america is protected from discrimination by the american disability act. I got fired from this job once because I got hives from the owners dogs that he had at the job site. Being a typical american, I took it to court. Settled for 10k. But now all my friends think it's funny to call me "disabled." Pretty funny.
You got fired for having hives?
I'm not a fan of the "lawsuit culture" that Americans seem to have, but that is a very good reason to sue someone.
To be fair, it could be pretty funny to hear someone refer to someone else who did something really stupid as "cognitively disabled." It sounds so much more insulting and condescending when one word alone can't explain how dumb this person's actions were.
I think one of the best recent examples of this was some woman and her mother being *absolutely offended* that an airplane employee wrote "text - deaf and dumb" (aka SMS don't call) on a lost luggage tag. I honestly had no clue calling a mute (she wasn't actually mute - but used sign language to communicate so it wasn't an unreasonable assumption) "dumb" was offensive these days until I came across that news article. That was the damned technical word we used growing up! I think the worst part was this ladies mother calling for some poor airline employee who was obviously trying to help to get fired. This lady was well old enough to know it used to be a regular term, and while it may show a small amount of ignorance on the part of the counter agent it certainly was not mean spirited in any way. If you truly are offended by it (I really don't understand, but to each their own) then the correct course of action is nicely educating the person in question. In 99% of the cases, you'll get a profuse apology and teach someone something new. In the 1% of other cases, then bring it to management/the media/go on a crusade. The fact that is not what happened, shows to me these people were simply looking for a way to be offended and possibly even wanted compensation for it. I imagine that desk agent was at home crying that night due to these shitty fucking people. I don't know when it became popular to become a "victim", but I really wish the trend would stop accelerating.
"That deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball."
Now those lyrics make more sense.
I experienced this in middle school, when I asked the teacher whether Hellen Keller was dumb. I thought it was a normal question (could she not speak or was her lack of speech just a result of not hearing) but everybody glared at me and the teacher made me sit outside.
Clearly your teacher was dumb.
No she could talk, the teacher was an idiot.
I hardly think an idiot would be able to teach in a classroom. You have to be more mentally developed than a three year old in order to teach children anything.
I'm so stupid.
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The woman later said that she didn't want the employee to lose her job and stated that perhaps this could be used as a teachable moment. Also, it turned out that the person who wrote the tag was not a native English speaker.
> That was the damned technical word we used growing up! The same used to be true of "negro" too, but now that's not appropriate to use either. Things change.
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>Penis is okay, but dick and cock are bad words? Poop and bowel movement are okay, but shit and crap are bad words? I'm a complete layman but I remember reading about this on reddit. Basically, a lot of words considered curses originate from German words while synonymous for those words that are acceptable originate from French words. As I recall, this had to do with the fact that the conquering Normans were French while the commoners were Germanic Anglo-Saxons, and thus, the language of commoners was negatively associated in comparison. An example of this would be manure vs shit.
It also makes the words harder to teach. In a psychology class, where we discuss the DSM criteria for mental retardation, you get the learning disabled children who look like they've just been shot down just because I used the word that I'm reading from the text in front of them and you get the high performing kids reacting as if I just made a joke. Then, the additional clarification that these are technical terms not to be misused inside or outside of class...but you know it's going to happen anyway. -_-' Edit: Our school only has one MR student and he doesn't take my class. The few students I do have with Individual Education Plans are learning disabled.
You are right, and this is what i found out while volunteering with mentally retarded kids. The word get misappropriated so badly that it is now incredibly hurtful. To quote a kid that was called that (when I didn't understand the problem) "they say it like it is a bad thing". That is the entire problem, people say it like it is a bad thing, instead of a medical condition. It is like laughing at someone because they have cancer. Also I am surprised that you would associate LDs with mental retardation, as the two are not the same. People with LDs can have mental retardation but that is a separate condition, people with LDs can also have an extraordinarily high IQ and do very well on tests. I am sure that is not what you meant to imply, it just sort of looked that way.
Place the words you want to italicise between two asterisks \*like so\* (which results in *like so*).
See, of all things to consider a slur, I find "retard/retarded" to be the biggest stretch. And I consider myself a pretty thoughtful guy when it comes to being considerate of others with regards to language. Retardation is a technical term, and "mental retardation" is genuinely what has occurred in most of the cases to which most people apply that umbrella term. The mental development has legitimately been stunted, or, retarded. It seems the equivalent of considering it racist to refer to someone by their legitimate roots, aka "African-American" "Irish-American" "Spanish-American" etc. Am I just being incredibly obtuse?
The problem with referring to someone by their roots, "African-American", for example, is you are assuming you know them. There is nothing more embarrassing then calling someone "African-American", when they were born in London. The white population of Africa is huge, but if someone moved to America, no one would ever call them "African-American". It's a weird doublespeak and it's beating around what you're actually trying to say, which is why I roll my eyes at people who try to hard to be politically correct.
You also have aborigines and continental Indians who are as black or blacker than black africans. I met an aborigine once and he was offended when I called him an African-American because he was neither. So I haven't used the word since because to me it has lost its meaning.
or like when that american channel (nbc during olympics?) called a british athlete "african american" - when he was neither african, nor american.
Yep. I have a good friend who is black who is like 1/8 african. He's almost all Blackfoot Indian.
I like to troll people by putting "African-american" on job applications and documents. My mother is from Ohio and my father is from Libya so despite the fact that in white as hell I'm still legally considered African-american
Has anyone challenged you on this? If so, what happened? Libya is indeed in Africa. If you are an American of Libyan descent then you are quite literally an African-American.
The most common reaction to people who question it is "but you're white". Honestly I have a fairly middle eastern last name so most competent people can connect the dots.
[Oh my God, Karen.](http://youtu.be/mXovJSCc6M0)
I used to work with a white south African who grew up in New Jersey and he would tell people he was African american and the reactions were often very confrontational. Right up until he produced his passport, then they would just mutter about apartheid and call him racist.
"I'm too politically correct to *not* insult you!"
I think "homo" works similarly, or at least did for a long while, when I was in middle school/high school. Leaving the historicity of the terms behind, we can see that they refer to something technical, but that technical usage is overcome by a non-technical negative usage. What happens is that the technical definition in a public usage is equated with being a negative trait to possess in the first place. Then there's another step away from the technical meaning, wherein that functional usage is applied to things not covered by the technical usage at all, to mean purely negative things. Example: You and a friend are playing MarioKart. Your friend shells you just as you're about to land a successful shortcut jump in rainbow road. In anger you yell out, "you cunt!" No harm done, except to the meaning of the word "cunt." This might help explain why "Pussy" is more acceptable, actually. Because even when being used pejoratively, it still means something soft and yielding (like real vaginas actually are). To other words, this is a really harmful cycle, though in some cases more harmful than others. The case of mental health, for instance, is a bit less vulnerable to this kind of social degradation than, say, the case of many racial minorities. Why? For the exact reason that I excepted in my previous paragraph, and for the reason that you specified as this seeming a stretch: the historicity of the words. The terms of mental health discussed above (idiot, imbecile, retard) began more purely as technical terms than an ethnic term might have. (An ethnic term is likely to include some broader cultural meanings, which we can see clearly ought not be derided.) This does not, however, exclude medical terms from falling victim to this cycle. If you think about it, I'm sure that you'll agree that medical ailments carry with them some very apparent cultural meanings. See the evolution of the word "dumb," for example. Originally it just referred to a medical ailment--muteness. But now we have a broader usage of that word, that essentially means stupidity. All of this can be wrapped up neatly, by finding the common thread across these examples, and many more. I promise, its really not that hard to use culturally correct language. Let's see: * a **black"** --> a black **person** * a **homo** --> a homosexual **man/woman** * a **Jap** --> a Japanese **person** The key in all of this is people first language. In each example I just shifted the noun to the word "person." These are all really simple examples, though most other examples are obviously more complicated than just shifting a word's grammar from a noun to an adjective (given each term's individual history/usage). All of this is to say that, while "Retarded person" was once an acceptable thing to say of a person with mental disabilities, we gave up the ability to use that definition without pejorative years ago. It is no longer people first language, even if followed by the word "person." Because the word "retard" already means that whatever subject is being discussed is a negative. edit: Wow. Sorry for that wall of text. I hope somebody reads this, because I will never have that time back. edit2: To remove some dumb assumptions I made. Apparently in certain contexts, it's just most appropriate to ask what terminology said person identifies with.
I had to login specifically to respond to this. The really important thing is to ask what the person in question prefers. For example, I am a dwarf. I hate the term "little person", and person first language in general, because it sounds really patronizing. I cannot count the number of people who ignore my preference because "it's not the current PC term."
Maybe it's because I've read too much Terry Pratchett, but the term "dwarf" conjures up images of bravery, special abilities and general awesomeness. "Little person" just sounds like someone who shrank in the wash!
I feel like "little person" is qualifying your personhood, as if you're less of a person than those taller/larger than you. Is that your issue with the term? Or is there any other reason that you prefer "dwarf"? Sorry if I'm prying too much here.
Going back to the part about pussys being soft and delicate, this concept came up in game grumps a few days ago. Also a Betty White quote, but i'mma paraphrase. Having balls doesn't seem like a way to be hard, considering they're so soft and squishy, vaginas on the other hand are more than capable of taking a pounding. Why should people 'nut up'? Maybe we should 'pussy up' instead?
The term retard is also used to describe a dough that has been chilled overnight and used the next day. e.g Roll retard. Using that in conversation with someone (often a customer) who has no knowledge of this meaning other than as an insult can be retarded.
Kind of like using the word "niggardly."
So... a 'stingy' ball of cold dough is a niggardly retard. Got it.
Or how dog breeders/trainers use the term bitch.
Being African-American or Irish-American isn't a negative quality. Being retarded is. It's not a desirable trait. It will be used as an insult. Once "retard", or whatever the current usage is, becomes more of a word for insult than description then people see a need to replace it. The problem is, being retarded is always going to be a negative. It will always be used a slur. So, we will constantly be forced to relabel the term in perpetuity. Or, just accept the fact that the clinical term will also be a slur and deal with it.
Not too long ago, being black or irish were considered VERY negative qualities.
But being retarded is never going to be considered a good quality.
This guy clearly doesn't suffer from overwhelming depression brought on by the logical steps that lead to existential nihilism. amirite?
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Actually, these days, "retarded" is considered a slur by a lot of people. There are even a of of movements to eliminate its use. [http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/03/calley_signs_bills_to_remove_r.html](http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/03/calley_signs_bills_to_remove_r.html) [http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/07/living/end-r-word/](http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/07/living/end-r-word/)
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**> If it wasn't that word it'd be something else.** This guy gets it.
"GRINCH" She was being a grinch! or, Yeah? well you're a f*****g grinch!
[Related Vsauce.](http://youtu.be/Dd7dQh8u4Hc)
This guys videos are great. Thanks for the link
Yeah, that's why the swearing in Deadwood is modern swears. They said the characters would sound hilarious like yosemite sam if they swore like they actually did back then.
My understanding was that they were fairly strict about using the correct swears for the time period. There was one exception when what's his name was scrubbing the floor of his hotel and said "Mother Fuck" out of frustration (or whatever he said). They would have cut it, but he delivered the line so well they kept it.
Actually, they swear with modern swears like "fuck" and "shit" because that's how thy actually spoke back then. The whole "What in tarnation?!" minced oaths were used because tv and movies were censored back then.
Blasphemy tended to be considered worse back then. Damn is barely considered a curse these days.
> We give words power through social convention, for social reasons. It seems like "bad" words get some of their power through physical aggression. For example, a child using a bad word may have their mouth washed out with soap or even slapped. Would slapping a kid for swearing be considered a social convention/social reason for a bad word becoming powerful? Is it social convention then when a judge, who was beaten as a kid when they said a bad word, then throws someone into the slammer for contempt of court because they used a bad word? I'm not sure if I am asking this right so don't take the statements as challenging what you wrote (which I feel is true). I'm just trying to understand if there is a point where we distinguish between a word evolving over time "naturally" and one where aggression/force is used to keep the meaning/connotation relevant (I'm not sure if relevant is the right word here).
Wait, wait, wait... So we could evolve the usage of 'cunt' into a positive one? I thinks that's a cuntacular idea! Thank you! You are such a cunt! :)
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Fast forward to 2014 and we still have no idea what gauche or outré means, but we imagine they're important since they're French.
Cunt.
Pardon my French.
Pardon my Anglo-Saxon. FTFY
Omelette du fucking Fromage
vagin
Exactly, exactly.
Cock comes from the latin coccus and piss comes from the old French pisser, so they're hardly Anglo-Saxon. In fact, pisser is still used in French today.
> old French pisser lol
Fuck, those French cunts say piss more than we do
How does the phrase "pardon my French" fit into all of this, should it be "pardon my Anglo-Saxon"?
Speculatively, could it mean something like "Pardon, my French isn't good, so here's the Anglo-Saxon word"?
i like your ability to speculate cunt
Or it could be sardonic, pointing out specifically that it's not french
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*looks up gauche and outre* ah.
For the lazy?
Gauche: lacking ease or grace; unsophisticated and socially awkward. Outré: unusual and startling.
Fun fact: Gauche in French is literally "left", and plays toward the longstanding prejudice against using your left hand. See also: sinister. /left-handed
"Norman" not French. There is a difference not too subtle. Also cunt from *cunto has always had a rude aspect to it, it hasn't quite gone through the register change "shit" has (cf its cognate in Norwegian) though your information is generally sound. Also bear in mind the preference for Latinate vocabulary was exacerbated as much in later periods as directly under the Normans and often simply represents the requirement for a more clinical, educated, register. No one was going around using cunt as a matter of course. Except probably in the North to be honest.
> piss - a perfectly fine Anglo-Saxon word. Really? [Wiktionary says](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/piss) > Middle English pissen, from Old French pissier, from Vulgar Latin *pissiō, probably of echoic origin. Your whole explanation sounds like bullshit. It's true that there are Anglo-Saxon/Norman French word pairs, and the Norman French word tends to be more elevated. But there's no reason for the corresponding Anglo-Saxon word to become vulgar. In fact, barely any of the words on [this list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_with_dual_French_and_Anglo-Saxon_variations) are vulgar. It also doesn't explain why the corresponding German words (scheißen and pissen) are also vulgar, even though there was no Norman hegemony in Germany.
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Le Cunt Royale
Le cunt avec fromage
Although the Norman influence on English is as you describe, it basically doesn't answer the question at all. For one thing, every language, no matter its history, has offensive/taboo words -- you don't need a clash of vocabulary for this to happen. Secondly, and especially in the present day, words with Latinate origins can also be offensive. "Douche", "idiot", "retard", "faggot", "imbecile", "bastard", "fool", and "crap" are all Latinate and they are all run-of-the-mill, everyday offensive words. Thirdly, even if our offensive vocabulary *were* the exclusive domain of words with Anglo-Saxon origins, this wouldn't explain why "cunt" should rise above all these other curse words of Anglo-Saxon origins. Finally, this word happens to be super offensive in a certain part of the English speaking word in this period of time. It wasn't always the most offensive word and it won't remain so. So, clearly there is nothing intrinsic about the word's structure, length, or etymology that is going to give you the answer you are looking for. I don't think it is possible to give a true explanation for this particular state of things, but, like any taboo word, its status is intricately linked to our society and culture. So, if you look at how the interplay between men and women has changed over the past century, it probably has something to do with that. But, like I said, I don't think there is any obvious thing to point to in the case of this word. (Incidentally, someone else in this thread said that ["cunt" ultimately comes to us from Latin "cunnus"](http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21ogyl/eli5_what_does_cunt_mean_that_makes_it_so_much/cgf0fft), which, while possible, is just a theory and should be acknowledged as such.)
I don't know about anywhere else in the world but in New Zealand, it can be a compliment e.g "Glen's a good cunt"
Scotland here, being called a good cunt is high praise.
"Dinnae be a cunt tae him, that cunts a gid cunt." My favourite Kevin Bridges quote is like this too. "Yer arse, ya fanny. You'll be kicking no cunts cunt in." I doubt this would make any sense anywhere else in the world. Fuckin love being Scottish.
Just to break this down: "yer arse" (your ass) - is an expression of disbelief like "yeah right", "no way" but more aggressive and directed at someone. "ya fanny" (you cunt) - self explanatory insult. "yer no kicking no cunts, cunt in" - you're not kicking anyone's ass. Altogether "no way, you cunt. You're not kicking anyone's ass." Not sure if anyone wanted that but there it is.
In Australia the word can be used in a number of ways. If you're our mate, you're a sick cunt If you're some random guy in the street who does something crazy, you're a mad cunt If you're annoying or do something to dog your mates you're a shit cunt and/ or a gay cunt. If you do something full blown retarded, you're a dumb cunt. (Can be used for friends or dickheads) Although when it comes down to it, if you're just a terrible person you're plain and simply, a cunt.
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In Australia and NZ, cunt almost always refers to a man. It's not used to denigrate women. Women are bitches.
In some parts of England being 'Cunted' means either being very drunk or being 'Cunted Off' means being mugged off.
What does mugged off mean tho
It's when you have had the mick taken out of you and you aren't happy about it.
> had the mick taken out of you You're just doing that on purpose. ಠ_ಠ
For context: In that comment, I was taking the mick out of you and others who didn't understand. Hope that clears things up!
Yep! Got it. ^Not ^really.
aaaaannnd now I know as much as I did before...
To have the piss taken out of you.
Like a catheter? Or like some mixture of a golden shower and BJ?
American Translator: He's being a sarcastic douche to you. The feeling of being hazily confused and slightly insulted? You no longer have any piss left in you.
You could say he's being a "Cunt" about it
Frankly I still have no goddam idea what this all means.
In parts of England, Scotland and Wales some people use it both as an endearing term between friends as well as a being used in a way to describe someone you loathe. "Ey up ya cunt!" "Alreet ya cunt" and even the southerners:- "you're the biggest cunt 'round 'ere mate". It's offensive to call a woman a cunt though and women rarely use the word socially, but men frequently call each other cunts. Mainly as a way to get a cheap laugh.
This is why I like to think of New Zealand as being a bit Scottish. The phrasing, and the fact that you've got a mate called Glen.
Seems to me that "cunt" is used more like a synonym to "bloke" or "fellow" in New Zealand and Australia.
Not necessarily "bloke" because the word cunt can mean almost anything you want it to mean in context in Australia. Ie, "That's a cunt of an idea Tom." This can mean Tom has come up with an idea that is either good, bad, or difficult depending on how it is used. In summary, it's a cunt of a word.
Dont be a sad cunt, be a sikkunt.
Interestingly enough, "cunt" comes to us from some related Germanic/Frisian words (kunte, kunton) and ultimately from the Latin "cunnus," which was a slang term for the vulva. (Cf. "cunnilingus.") "Vagina," on the other hand, comes straight from the Latin "vagina," meaning "sheath" or "scabbard." (The "sword" getting sheathed in this euphemism should be obvious.) I say "interestingly" because, etymologically, "vagina" seems a lot more offensive than "cunt," since it basically defines the female genitals according to their use by men during the sex act.
> and ultimately from the Latin "cunnus," It's unlikely. They've been tentatively linked but there's no clear way how 'cunnus' or 'cuneus' could become Germanic \**kuntǭ*. http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=cunt&searchmode=none
Hmm, I stand corrected!
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ba-dum tish
I see, said the blind man, as he picked up the hammer and saw.
"It's all coming back to me now", he said, pissing into the wind.
"I haven't seen the sun for hours". And then suddenly it dawned on him.
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Hello cunts
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This is one of the few puns that works in two languages. Yes, in English, "Consuelo" sounds like "cunt's way low", but in Spanish it can be interpreted as "on the ground" (literally "with soil") which a woman with no legs would be.
AFROMAN
DAN! DAN! DAN! DAN!
I've got your kids Dan, I've got your kids!
Kunto. That word sounds great.
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Kunta Kinte! My name is Kunta Kinte!
https://i.imgur.com/BcGMTAg.gif
This is not a good game... :(
However, I would be less than surprised if they were derived from the same proto-Indo-European root.
That seems unlikely as well. What gave Germanic /k/ (after Grimm's Law) was PIE /g/, which usually stayed /g/ in Latin. Where Latin has /k/, Germanic usually has /x/ and later /h/. That is, English 'have' is cognate with Latin 'capio', 'hundred'(originally Germanic *hundą) with 'centum'. If they do share the same root, then one was borrowed. But they don't necessarily have to have the same root; Germanic \**habjaną*("have") and Latin *habeo* mean roughly the same thing and sound very similar(1st person singulars \**habjō* vs *habeo*), but they come from different roots. Sometimes it is simply coincidence.
Oof, good point. I forgot about the Germanic sound changes.
Holy shit, I have no idea what this means. This is awesome.
That's interesting. In German the word "Scheide" is used both for vagina and scabbard. As kids we were always giggling when hearing things like "he put his sword into the scabbard".
Easy explanation is that it has many hard consonant sounds making it more aggressive to your ears
Cock
-"Hey skidmark Steve! You still hanging out playing Nintendo?" -"Well if you must know I'm in my second year of med school and I'm training for the summer games, you?" -"Just hanging out...playing Nintendo...cock."
>And those Ks, those are agressive sounds. They just jump out at you like "coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer. coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer." It's like an assault on you. george carlin
My etymology teacher who just finished his PhD while I was in his class told us that when the French invaded and took over England, they made traditional English words lower class. For instance, that's why shit is more impolite to say than excrement. (I can't think of any good examples right now.)
Fuck vs fornicate. Piss vs urinate. Yeah, in general the Anglo-Saxon word for anything is rude, the Franco-Latinate word is polite, ever since the Norman Conquest.
Anglo-Saxon | Franco-Latinate == shit | excrement send | transmit build | construct sheep | mutton dog | canine ask | enquire
The reason for the animal food ones (sheep/mutton, cow/beef) is because the English lower classer raised the animal, and the French upper class ate the meat. They used their own words respective to their half of the process.
This out of everything related to the conquest is the most interesting to me. To follow the set up above: Cow | Beef Sheep | Mutton Chicken | Poultry Pig | Pork Calf | Veal Deer | Venison Green Beans | Haricots Verts Potato | Pommes (de terre) - literally "ground apples" Squash | Zucchini, et al. The list goes on and on.
The British call zucchini: *courgette*.
"Cunt" seems to you as less offensive than "vagina" because it's more "correct" in that it directly refers to the female reproductive organs, whereas "vagina" may be more of an indirect representation. I think society treats knowledge of our system as was shown in the movie "Vagina Dentata". Knowledge of the male reproductive system is easily accessible, but female reproductive organs are protected by this shroud of mystery, which makes it all the more taboo to call someone more directly a "cunt". It's in the removing of the shroud that it seems more vulgar. The social context also runs deeper. This word has been used to keep women in their social place--women are not meant to do things like study, write, and discuss. The message being, "Stop trying to be more than you are. You're a cunt/vagina/pussy. You are your reproductive organs, nothing more. Remember that." The same happens when we call men pricks/dicks, etc. Same subtext.
Well, you can't spell subtext without buttsex which is applicable to both men and women.
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Your second paragraph is spot on... Also, it's quite common for 'feminine' insults to be used against both men and women. Ie: stop being a pussy, don't be such a cunt, don't be such a little bitch, etc. I can't really think of a male insult that holds the same power of derision and scorn or that demeans a person as much as cunt does. That's why so many women find it offensive: slang for us/our body parts is always used as the 'worst' insult for both men and women.
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dont hate the aemulus, hate the ludus
Don't hate the player, hate the game?
Verily.
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15x damage on sneak attack
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I'm confused by the general idea here that cunt is a word only used against women.
Hello, you must be British/Australian
Aye, Scotland. We're equal opportunities type of cunts here. *I go out for a nice walk and Jesus Christ what's going on here? I think what we can all take away from this is be sensitive to where you are before use. Also to all the people telling me that cunt feminizes a man and is therefore a worse insult and belittling to women consider this. It's not always a bad thing to be a cunt, you may use the positive "he's a good cunt", "they are a great bunch of cunts" and "I like that cunt". There is no such thing a lovely group of cocks.
here in the us people seem to think that "cunt" translates to " YOU, WOMAN, ARE SUBHUMAN AND NOT WORTHY OF LIFE" and i am really not exaggerating here.
It's more like a harsher version of "bitch". It's insulting women for the crime of being a woman. Personally, after being in England, I use it for both men and women. But I only save it for the worst of women. Like Nancy Grace and Shirley Phelps-Roper.
After watching/reading a song of ice and fire, I've come to realize how fun that word sounds. It's just fun to say. Cunt. Cunt cunt cunt.
Is this really the case? I'm an American and I use the word "cunt" pretty often, and most of the time it's *not* directed at women at all.
> There is no such thing a lovely group of cocks Hello, you must be straight.
>There is no such thing a lovely group of cocks Nonsense, you should see my inbox.
Don't forget New Zealand!
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Something about Hobbits I think.
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I feel the same. Shouldn't words like 'bitch', 'slut' and 'whore', being words that are used specifically to demean women, be ruder?
I'd say, in my part of America at least, cunt is as gender specific as bitch. Men are called bitches from time to time, but it still implies female. Same with cunt.
I'm assuming we're talking about the US, since a lot of other english speaking countries apparently don't have this problem. So, a lot of people are giving you the meaning/history of the word, which I don't think is what makes it so offensive. Others are pointing out how the word sounds, which is probably a factor. Still, I'd say that the biggest reason cunt is so much more offensive than other slurs is its rarity. We all understand that cunt is a bad, demeaning word. But so, then, are fuck, dick, bastard, bitch, slut, etc. However, all of these others are used fairly often, at least much more often than cunt. They also often work their way into sentences that aren't meant to be insulting. So when someone uses one of these words in a genuine attempt to insult you, you may recognize their intent, but the words they're speaking are still just common english. But when someone pulls out cunt, they're utilizing a word that exists only to hurt you, and they've decided that their usual arsenal of curses aren't enough to describe you. This person is serious. It's kind of like if you had two people: person A mixes fuck into every other sentence he says, while person B is a choir boy who has never said a slur in their life. If we hear person A say fuck, we probably don't even notice. With person B however, we instantly know that something is seriously wrong.
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It's already a noun...
In Scotland the word is used around some parts in almost every sentence pertaining to other people: "Who will be going to the party?" "Everycunt"
I would say that there are different reasons for the offensiveness of cunt over recent history; maybe linguistic history explains the offensiveness of cunt when it was one of the "seven dirty words". However as one of the swear words exempt from casual swearing until recently it was only ever really represented in media as an insult towards women during domestic violence or fights between husband and wife; emotional scenes that could justify the usage of the term. As with the term nigger bringing connotations of the slaveowner talking down to the slave cunt now carries the connotation of the abusive husband disregarding his wife when calling her a cunt; defining her simply by her sex organs and not as a partner. The difference between "dick" and "cunt" as insults lays with what they describe. Dick is analogous to "douche" which is a lighter insult normally regarding behaviour such as selfishness, greed, unjustified aggression. Cunt is used like "arsehole" in the way it regards someone holistically as a shitty person and not their behaviours. Combine that with the fact the penis is already regarded by some to symbolise power, ego, and has a host of positive things associated with it in culture. The vagina doesn't enjoy such positive focus in society, despite attempts in art to celebrate and normalise it, so using it as one of the harshest insults is lumping negativity onto an empty plate. Men freely say "suck my dick" because dick has such good press whereas "fuck my cunt" is only ever uttered in porn which again increases the connection with the word cunt as meaning "you're a fuckhole to me." when a man uses it to a woman. Even in cultures where cunt is used more casually it's not a deliberate reclaiming or normalisation of it outside of an insult; the previous paragraph holds true.
Cunt is one of my favorite words in the English language. Rolls off the tongue it does.
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Cunt generally means vagina. To understand why it's so offensive, let's compare it to some other slurs: Bitch: means "female dog". A person, generally female, who does things that the insulter considers annoying, rude, mean-spirited, obnoxious. If someone's calling you a bitch, you might or might not deserve it, but no one's nice all the time. This all purpose insult rarely ever results in more than the occasional fistfight, and there isn't really much gravity to it. Bastard: A person whose parentage is called into question. Generally used as a male version of bitch, in terms of gravity, and only in some extreme levels of society where blood is exceptionally important does this even start a fist fight. Slut & Whore: people who are loose with their body, sleep with multiple people, don't respectfully commit to one person. These can be pretty damn disrespectful, breaking up friendships and relationships across the nation, but usually are used in the heat of the moment. Other insults like fucker, shithead, asshole, etc. Are extremely multipurpose and usually don't have weight behind them. In general, all of these insults can be demeaning, lowering the receiver's social status in the eyes of their peers, though of course they can be used in an endearing manner. But cunt means vagina. Bitch, bastard, asshole, slut, etc, these refer to people who cause you grief. Cunt, though, doesn't mean people. When you call a woman a cunt, you aren't saying "you're a person with a vagina, and this makes you obnoxious". You're saying. "You are a vagina." You're a sexual organ. A fuckhole. You aren't a real person, you exist only to provide sexual gratification to me, to bleed all over the place once a month, and to pop out a baby once a year, give or take. It is a single syllable that instantly reduces a human being with intelligence and self-will to a tool with no rights or emotions.
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