Kunt (pronounced kuhnt)
(1) In
English, a deliberate misspelling of the offensive slang “cunt”, used sometimes
in an attempt to avoid sanction or censorship by text-based filters.
(2) A Turkish
surname (meaning “strong or durable” in ancient Turkish and in Ottoman Turkish
(as Kunter), “kind man”) with roots in the Germanic.
Pre 900: Kunt
& Kunter are surnames in both Turkish and German surname with evidence of
historic use as a given name. In ancient
Turkish, Kunt means “strong or
durable”, derived from the robustness of the large ropes used to tie the ships
to the docks (the appended "er"
meaning "soldier" or "man".
In Ottoman Turkish, it meant "kind man".
Kunt is ultimately from the Proto-Germanic kuntǭ, either through the Old High German cunta or a borrowing from the Middle
High German kunte, the Old Norse kunta or another (northern) Germanic language
and it had a relatively rare application as a descriptor for female genitalia. All forms ultimately derive from the from the
Proto-Germanic kuntǭ.
In Dutch, kunt was the second-person
singular present indicative of kunnen
and an archaic plural imperative of kunnen. The Dutch kunnen (to be possible; to be able to; to be available)
was from the Middle Dutch connen, cunnen, from the Old Dutch cunnan, from the Proto-West Germanic kunnan, from the Proto-Germanic kunnaną, from the primitive Indo-European
ǵneh.
International distribution of the surname Kunt.
Saint
Knut's Day (Knut in English also pronounced kuhnt) an alternative form of the historical name Cnut, from the Old Norse Knútr, cognate with Danish Knud and the English Canute) is a festival celebrated in
Sweden and Finland on 13 January and interestingly is not marked in Denmark
even though it's named after Prince Canute Lavard of Denmark and later
associated also with his uncle, Canute the Saint, patron saint of Denmark. Canute Lavard (Knut Levard in Swedish) was a
Danish duke assassinated by his cousin and rival Magnus Nilsson on 7 January
1131, the murderer's intent the usurpation of the Danish throne. From this act ensued a civil war which led to
Knut being declared a saint, 7 January named as Knut's Day. Because this day was so close to the Feast of
the Epiphany (thirteenth day of Christmas), in 1680 as one of a number of
reforms, Knut's Day was moved to 13 January, becoming tjugondag Knut (twentieth day of Knut/Christmas). Some of the rituals are also observed in
Finland but in a charming twist, the tradition there includes the "evil
knut".
In these dark days man tends to look for little
shafts of light that spill from Heaven. My days are probably darker than yours,
and I need, my God I do, all the light I can get. But I am a decent fellow, and
I do not want to be mean and selfish about what little brightness is shed upon
me from time to time. So I propose to share with you a tiny flash that has
illuminated my sombre life and tell you that God has given me a new Turkish
colleague whose card tells me that he is called Mustapha Kunt.
We all feel like that, Reggie, now and then,
especially when spring is upon us, but few of us would care to put it on our
cards. It takes a Turk to do that.
Cunt (pronounced kuhnt)
(1)
Vulgar (thought most disparaging and offensive) slang for the vulva or vagina.
(2) A contemptuous
term used to refer to a person (although in some cultures it can be applied
neutrally or as a term or endearment (usually with an adjectival modifier (eg “a
good cunt”) and used in the same way as “bastard”.
(3) A
term of disapproval applied to any task or object (especially machinery) which
is proving tiresome or difficult to fix, replace, remove etc; an unpleasant or
difficult experience or incident.
(4) Sexual
intercourse with a woman (archaic, long replaced by “fuck” and a myriad of
others).
1275–1325:
from the Middle English cunte, conte,
counte, queinte, queynt & queynte,
from the Old English cunte (female
genitalia), from the Proto-Germanic kuntǭ & kunþaz. It was
cognate with the Old Norse kunta,
the West Frisian kunte, the Middle
Dutch conte (from whence the Dutch kont (butt)), the dialectal Swedish kunta, the dialectal Danish kunte and the Icelandic kunta.
Despite the apparently obvious link with the Latin cunnus (female pudenda (also, vulgarly, "a
woman")), etymologists maintain the link has never been established.
Cunnus is of uncertain etymology but the speculative
links include the primitive Indo-European gen
& gwen (woman) (most discount any
relationship with the primitive Indo-European root geu- (hollow place)) and the primitive Indo-European kutnos (cover), cognate with cutis (skin), a metaphor identical to
the one connecting the Latin vulva and English hull, albeit from a different
Indo-European root. Also speculative is
a relationship to the Latin cuneus
(wedge) or the primitive European (s)ker- (to cut), an evolution from the original
sense of “gash” or “slit”. It does
seem counter intuitive there’s no link with the Latin cunnus but etymologists insist there’s simply no evidence and the
more likely connection is with the primitive Indo-European root kut (bag; scrotum (and metaphorically
also “female pudenda”)), source also of the Ancient Greek kysthos (vagina; buttocks; pouch, small bag (although there is the
suggestion this is pre-Greek)), the Lithuanian kutys (money bag) and the Old High German hodo (testicles).
The first known instance in English appears
to be a compound form, an Oxford street name “Gropecuntlane”, documented circa 1230
(and attested through the late fourteenth century) and presumed by historians
and etymologists (who don’t always agree) to indicate the place was a haunt of
prostitutes, a hint “cunt” was then thought of as merely descriptive of women
in a sexual context without the anatomical specificity it would later gain,
something that would seem to have happened by circa 1400 because in that era it
appears descriptively in medical texts.
Tying the word explicitly to female genitalia influenced general use; it
was avoided in public speech (certainly in the polite circles for which records
exist although this does not guarantee the pattern was replicated throughout
society) by the fifteenth century and was assuredly thought obscene by the
seventeenth. Further credence to this
devolution to the disreputable is that Geoffrey Chaucer (circa 1344-1400), when
in the late fourteenth century writing the Canterbury
Tales, used queynte without a
hint he was searching for any sense of the vulgar yet within two centuries it
was cited as an example of why the work was a byword for the risqué. The word with the Middle English spelling cunte is in the early fourteenth century
poem the Proverbs of Hendyng,
featured in a line offering wise advice to young maidens: Ȝeue þi cunte to cunnig and craue affetir wedding (Give
your cunt wisely and make (your) demands after the wedding.)
The Australian Linguistic Tradition
Long
before it became the “c-word”, there was "female intercrural foramen"
or, as some eighteenth century writers would have it “the monosyllable",
surely the most exclusively exclusionary euphemism ever. In less permissive times it troubled many
authors and journalists and some, before “c-word” became fashionable, replaced
it with something thought less strident (and there’s quite a list, men never
having displayed any reticence or imaginative deficit in finding ways to
disparage women or take linguistic ownership of their body parts) while other
would bowdlerize, usually with variations of c**t, c*nt etc. Lexicographers seem usually to have included
an entry in their fullest or most academic dictionaries, usually with some
stress on the word’s almost respectable origins, but it was often omitted from abbreviated
editions, missing even from the 1933 edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. One publication listed 552 synonyms from
English slang and literature and a further half-dozen pages of the better-known
from French, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, the poetic
expression of the Dutch especially putting the dour English to shame with liefdesgrot (cave of love) & vleesroos (rose of flesh). In English-speaking countries,
"cunt" is now the most offensive swear word and, although the taboo
which once proscribed its use in all but among the most linguistically
consensual male society has been relaxed, it remains perhaps the last true
swear word and only racial (and increasingly gender-based) slurs now attract
more disapprobation. That said, evidence
does suggest in certain sub-cultures, use seems at times to be both frequent and
obligatory.
One sub-culture in which it's suspected the word is frequently uttered but seldom reported, is the dirty business of politics, conducted in what are still sometimes called "smoke filled rooms", a phrase once not figurative. Bob Hawke (1929–2019; prime minister of Australia 1983-1991), not long in parliament but more ambitious than most, in 1982 enlisted the support of the Labor Party's then powerful New South Wales (NSW) right-wing "machine" to undermine the ALP's leader, Bill Hayden (b 1933; Leader of the Opposition 1977-1983) whom he famously described as "a lying cunt with a limited future." It took a couple of goes but in 1983, Hawke prevailed. Hayden was well acquainted with both the tactics of the NSW right and the place of lies in politics. Once, when pointing out some inconsistency to the ALP's right-wing powerbroker (the factions preferred the appellation "coordinator") Graham Richardson (b 1949; ALP general secretary (NSW) 1976-1983), Hayden was told "...yes but we were lying to you then, today we're telling the truth."
The Hansard is the record of what is said on the floor of parliament and while not all interjections make it into print, one unrecorded homophonous gem of an exchange in the Australian parliament between Sir Winton Turnbull (1899-1980) and Gough Whitlam (1916–2014; prime minister 1972-1975) deserved to:
Sir Winton Turnbull (Country Party, Mallee): "I’m a country member and…"
Mr Gough Whitlam (ALP, Werriwa): "I remember."
Although use is now curtailed in many workplaces where once it was a standard vernacular form. the word remains a fixture in Australian English and one joke featured former National Party leader Tim Fischer (1946–2019; leader of the National Party of Australia 1990-1999) answering questions at a conference of the party's youth wing:
Delegate: "Mr Fisher, I'm the president of the Rockhampton branch of the Young Nats and I just found out we used to be called the Country Party. Why did we change the name?"
Fisher: "Well, what to you call the Young Liberal Party?"
Delegate: "The Young Libs, Mr Fisher."
Fisher: "And what do you call the Young Democrats?"
Delegate: "The Young Dems, Mr Fisher."
Fisher: "Well, that's why we changed the name."
Rita Ora (b 1990) at the House of Holland show, London Fashion Week, September 2014. Ms Ora combined the t-shirt with an Aztec-style & leopard-print pencil skirt with a box jacket. Hand-distressed and screen printed in Los Angeles, the Enfants Riches Déprimés t-shirt’s list price was US$225.
Second-wave feminist authors didn’t really add anything not already known, noting it was probably the worst of the many disparaging terms attached to women and although the function of words alluding to women’s conduct (eg bitch, slut) were structurally different from those referencing their anatomy (eg cunt, tits), both were devices casually to dehumanize women by reducing them to stereotypes or body-parts, cunt the most offensive because of the reductionism; the idea that to men the rest of a woman is but a life support-system for the cunt and the sole worthwhile purpose for that, male gratification. However, despite some activist and academic prodding, the idea that women might reclaim the word never caught the imagination and morphed into a mass-movement in the way the “slut-walks” sought to diminish the power the weaponization of the word “slut” afforded men. That apparent reticence does suggest that despite recent linguistic permissiveness, “cunt” retains the power to repel most, even if for a good cause as it were. Thus it endures alone in what used to be a well-populated niche and is now the English language’s last true obscenity and those who use it need to remember the impact relies on rarity, an essential part of it sounding truly obscene. Just as Joseph Heller (1923–1999) got the most from “fuck” by using it but once in Catch-22’s (1961) 450-odd pages, “cunt” should be English’s nuclear option and if it’s any consolation to women, when used by them, “cunt” can sound its most obscene.
In the matter of Jeremy Hunt MP.
The surname “Hunt” is one which can be mispronounced. Because of the operation of linguistic assimilation, the chance of mistake heightened if the affectionate diminutive of the given name is used when speaking of a Michael Hunt and script-writers have here and there been tempted. In the case of a politician like the Conservative Jeremy Hunt (b 1966; UK Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2022), it may be that sometimes the “mistake” is deliberately made as a “coded” political point. One politician with a name with such possibilities decided to avoid inter-generational transfer of the problem. UK Labour’s Ed Balls (b 1967) in 2011 revealed his children took his wife’s surname, so to “spare them the bullying that scarred his own childhood.”
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