You are reading a single comment by @addie and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@addie
All the best swear words are Germanic. Fact. But it seems those Latinate ones aren't bad either…
As far as I'm aware (transl.: a swift google might prove me wrong, but I can't be arsed), "cunt" is a curtailed derivation of the cuter 19th century (?) "cunny", which shares the same roots as the entirely inoffensive "cunnilingus" which stems from the Latin "cunus" (or "cunnus," I don't recall), which refers to the visible sections of female genitalia, also temed "vulva."
Funny how some words are taken harsher than others. There was a time when "cunny" was akin to "willy" on the offensometer, and "prick," only slightly, though still notably, worse. Now "the c word" is among the worse out there, apparently, whilst call someone by any range of aggressive slang terms for the male pudenda is totally acceptable if you're over the age of eight.
If anything, it might suggest some kind of inherent "dirtiness" towards female genitals. But I'm sure you'll all disagree. Just a thought…