- cunt
- "female intercrural foramen," or, as some 18c. writers refer to it, "the monosyllable," M.E. cunte "female genitalia," akin to O.N. kunta, from P.Gmc. *kunton, of uncertain origin. Some suggest a link with L. cuneus "wedge," others to PIE base *geu- "hollow place," still others to PIE *gwen-, root of queen and Gk. gyne "woman." The form is similar to L. cunnus "female pudenda," which is likewise of disputed origin, perhaps lit. "gash, slit," from PIE *sker- "to cut," or lit. "sheath," from PIE *kut-no-, from base *(s)keu- "to conceal, hide." First known reference in Eng. is said to be c.1230 Oxford or London street name Gropecuntlane, presumably a haunt of prostitutes. Avoided in public speech since 15c.; considered obscene since 17c. Du. cognate de kont means "a bottom, an arse." Du. also has attractive poetic slang ways of expressing this part, such as liefdesgrot, lit. "cave of love," and vleesroos "rose of flesh." Alternative form cunny is attested from c.1720 but is certainly much earlier and forced a change in the pronunciation of coney (q.v.), but it was good for a pun while coney was still the common word for "rabbit": "A pox upon your Christian cockatrices! They cry, like poulterers' wives, 'No money, no coney.' " [Massinger, 1622]
- berk
- "fool," 1936, abbreviation of Berkshire Hunt, rhyming slang for cunt but typically applied only to contemptible persons, not to the body part.
"This is not an objective, anatomical term, neither does it imply coitus. It connects with that extension of meaning of the unprintable, a fool, or a person whom one does not like." ["Dictionary of Rhyming Slang," 1960]
- cunnilingus
- 1887, from Mod.L. cunnus "vulva" (see cunt) + lingere "to lick" (see lick (v.)). The L. properly would mean "one who licks a vulva," but it is used in Eng. in reference to the action, not the actor. The verb ought to be cunnilingue.
"Cunnilingus was a very familiar manifestation in classical times; ... it tends to be especially prevalent at all periods of high civilization." [Havelock Ellis, 1905]
- quaint
- early 13c., "cunning, proud, ingenious," from O.Fr. cointe "pretty, clever, knowing," from L. cognitus "known," pp. of cognoscere "get or come to know well" (see cognizance). Sense of "old-fashioned but charming" is first attested 1795, and could describe the word itself, which had become rare after c.1700 (though it soon recovered popularity in this secondary sense). Chaucer used quaint and queynte as spellings of cunt in "Canterbury Tales" (c.1386), and Andrew Marvell may be punning on it similarly in "To His Coy Mistress" (1650).
- sycophant
- 1537 (in L. form sycophanta), "informer, talebearer, slanderer," from L. sycophanta, from Gk. sykophantes, originally "one who shows the fig," from sykon "fig" + phanein "to show." "Showing the fig" was a vulgar gesture made by sticking the thumb between two fingers, a display which vaguely resembles a fig, itself symbolic of a cunt (sykon also meant "vulva"). The story goes that prominent politicians in ancient Greece held aloof from such inflammatory gestures, but privately urged their followers to taunt their opponents. The sense of "mean, servile flatterer" is first recorded in Eng. 1575.
- fig
- early 13c., from O.Fr. figue, from O.Prov. figa, from V.L. *fica, from L. ficus "fig tree, fig," from a pre-I.E. Mediterranean language, possibly Semitic (cf. Phoenician pagh "half-ripe fig"). Earlier borrowed directly into O.E. from L. as fic. The insulting sense of the word in Shakespeare, etc. (A fig for ...) is 1570s, from Gk. and It. use of their versions of the word as slang for "cunt," apparently because of how a ripe fig looks when split open. Giving the fig (Fr. faire la figue, Sp. dar la higa) was an indecent gesture of ancient provenance, made by putting the thumb between two fingers or into the mouth. See sycophant. Use of fig leaf in figurative sense of "flimsy disguise" (1550s) is from Gen. iii.7.
- pussy (2)
- slang for "cunt," 1879, but probably older; perhaps from O.N. puss "pocket, pouch" (cf. Low Ger. puse "vulva"), but perhaps instead from the cat word (see pussy (1)) on notion of "soft, warm, furry thing;" cf. Fr. le chat, which also has a double meaning, feline and genital. Earlier uses are difficult to distinguish from pussy (1), e.g.:
"The word pussie is now used of a woman" [Philip Stubbes, "The Anatomie of Abuses," 1583]
But the use of pussy as a term of endearment argues against the vaginal sense being generally known before late 19c., e.g.:" 'What do you think, pussy?' said her father to Eva." [Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," 1852]
Pussy-whipped first attested 1956. - coney
- c.1200, from Anglo-Norm. conis, pl. of conil "long-eared rabbit" (Lepus cunicula) from L. cuniculus (cf. Sp. conejo, Port. coelho, It. coneglio), the small, Spanish variant of the It. hare (L. lepus), the word perhaps from Iberian Celtic (classical writers say it is Spanish). Rabbit arose 14c. to mean the young of the species, but gradually pushed out the older word 19c., after British slang picked up coney as a synonym for "cunt" (cf. connyfogle "to deceive in order to win a woman's sexual favors"). The word was in the King James Bible [Prov. xxx.26, etc.], however, so it couldn't be entirely dropped, and the solution was to change the pronunciation of the original short vowel (rhyming with honey, money) to rhyme with boney. In the O.T., the word translates Heb. shaphan "rock-badger." Rabbits not being native to northern Europe, there was no Gmc. or Celtic word for them. Brooklyn's Coney Island so called for the rabbits once found there and was known to the Du. as Konijn Eiland, from which the Eng. name probably derives.