To Really, Really, Hate That Word?

[WhyDoesThatWordExist]

Call me an old prude, but, why does the 'C**t' word exist? And why do so many MNers use it? It HAS to be the most offensive, crude, word there is?

The way I see it, it shows exactly what sort of person you are, if you think it's okay to use it? Or is it my age showing?

Go on, flame me.....

Also - it is a very old word.....and i like that about it.

Totally agree with you Johanna and thanks for the great quote .

I like it.

it is a very old word.

It is actually alluded to in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and in William Wycherley's The Country Wife, the 'country' is a play on cunt so the word itself is actually centuries old.

Top word. I love it.

Ugh to two actuallys. Sorry pedants.

Ooooh, the etymology sounds really interesting.

Two Actuallys and a Cunt

Suwoo - shall we write the new Richard Curtis film?

I didn't like it until I realised that, as it was the most unspeakably disgusting word you could call someone, then (keep up) the most unspeakably disgusting thing you can call anyone is 'vagina', suggesting that vaginas are unspeakably disgusting. That had my feminist hackles up. Reclaim it I say.

I'ts a great word if you don't use it all the time. Sometimes i'ts the only possible word you can use in certain situations where no other word will do. It just feels right!

It's just another "C" word like "Conservative"!

I prefer the rhyming slang "Jeremy Hunt"!

It's an excellent word with a rich heritage. It is very satisfying to use and I love it. Also love the idea of a mumsnet campaign to reclaim it.

How on earth can the use of it tell you exactly what sort of person someone is??

YABVU

thing is all this 'reclaim it' wouldn't work as the majority of people in this country wouldn't understand it.

i don't like it myself either

Well it appears as kunta in Old Norse (the ancient language in which Beowulf was written). It has several spellings in Middle English (the language of Chaucer) such as: coynte; cunte; and queynte.

I don't find it that offensive. By the way, Bernard Manning told a funny (for him) joke

"They say you are what you eat. I'm a c*."

That's what you get for looking up rude words on Wikepedia, although I did an English degree, and was aware of much of its etymolgy.

I hate it too, OP. There are plenty of vile swear words but to 'hear' women using that one really grates on me.

Now come on, etymolgy is the worst. YOu can't get worse than that.

It exists because about 500 years ago it was a perfectly normal word for vulva. Hence there was Gropecunte Lane, where ladies of the night were to be found, in more than one city in England. It's a word, not an action. It doesn't make a person bleed, it doesn't leave them hungry so I have no problem with it.

There are IMHO uglier words and there is certainly IMO something far more irritating about the coy use of "the C-word" than there is something offensive about "cunt". Besides, sometimes, such as when describing my ex husband. only cunt will do.

I dislike it, and suspect it's populaity in use has at least a small lick of feminist influence.

Yanbu

toddler - do you think there is something wrong with feminist influence over a female word?

It's not the word or its history but the fact that men use it to describe people intensely disagreeable.

Interestingly, read that the word 'hell' was a euphemism for vagina in Shakespeare's day.

I think that Cunt is the best word in the English language. I have never ever been offended by it. There are times when only Cunt will suffice as an expletive.

Men call each other cocks now when they are being cocks, "oh hes such cock" "don't be a cock" "oh cock it"

toddlerwrangler....explain your comment...I suspect it's coming from a place which is a lot more offensive than the word cunt.