Bossloper

Bossloper (pronounced baws-loh-per)

Variously, an inhabitant of the woods; a trapper or hunter; a soldier or irregular combatant of some sort who operates in the forest.

1600s: From the Dutch boschlooper (“forest walker” or “woods walker”), the construct being bosch + looper.  Bosch (also as bos) (“forest” or “wood”) was from the Old Dutch busc, from the Proto-Germanic buskaz which may in some way be linked with the Latin boscus (forest).  Looper (latterly more common as loper) was from the Dutch verb lopen (“walker” or “runer”), from the Proto-Germanic hlaupaną (“to leap” or “to run”).  Historically, in Europe, boschloopers (or boslopers) were those individuals valued by military and paramilitary forces as trackers, scouts, guerrilla fighters because of their skill in moving undetected through forests.  In particular, it was used to describe Dutch and Flemish soldiers, rebels or other irregulars who hid in and navigated the woods during conflicts in the Low Countries, most famously during the like the Eighty Years' War (1566–1648).  During the European colonial period, it was used of those who lived (usually semi-nomadically) in forests, often connected to indigenous or mixed communities, like those in Suriname (long an overseas possession of the Dutch Empire).  In colonial North America, the form was Anglicized as “bossloper” and described trapper, hunters and others lived for extended periods in the wilderness, dependent often for survival on the own skills and knowledge of their environment.  Bosslope is a noun; the noun plural is bosloper.

The American Mountain Men (AMM) is an association of individuals dedicated to the preservation of the traditions and ways of those it describes as “our nation’s greatest, most daring explorers and pioneers, the Mountain Men” and to the “actual conservation of our nation’s remaining natural wilderness and wildlife; and to the ability of our members to survive alone, under any circumstances, using only what nature has to offer”.  The AMM describes their members primary characteristic as “first and foremost, a Brotherhood of Men” (and it does appear to enjoy an exclusively male membership).  The core of the AMM’s “fraternal concept” appears to be to “keep alive the skills of the freest men our great nation ever birthed; to preserve his abilities and emulate his way of life as historically accurately as possible.”

Lindsay Lohan during Bossloper training for canoe handling (requirement 12); maybe one day women will be admitted to the AMM as “associate members”.  The image is from Georgia Rule (2007), 

The AMM has layers of membership and (by invitation only) and new members must be sponsored by two AMM members who hold the Bossloper degree, or one member who holds the Hiveranno degree (both of these designations of membership status).  To obtain Bossloper membership, once a prospective candidate has entered the Pilgrim phase (another layer), within two years it’s necessary to complete any ten of a list of requirements with (1) & (2) being mandatory and (16) not required (for technical reasons).  During this period, a candidate will mentored by their sponsor(s) and other “seasoned AMM members” will provide “guidance”.  Upon the minimum ten requirements being within two years fulfilled, Bossloper status will be granted and a membership number issued.  The AMM’s twenty requirements ((16) not required) to become a Bossloper are:

(1) Must have a full set of hand-cut and sewn clothing and handmade accoutrements. These must be researched for authenticity of the 1800-40 period and be of a type which would have been seen on men in, or moving to, the Rocky Mountains. Rifles, saddles, traps, blankets, and other accoutrements that would normally have required the work of a specialized craftsman need not be handmade, but must be as authentic as can be purchased today.

(2) Must have spent at least two days and one night in a primitive camp during each season of the year.

(3) Must have spent an accumulative time of two or more weeks in the wilderness under primitive conditions in the company of no more than one other member. Each stay must be at least three full days and two full nights.

(4) Must have spent at least one full week in a primitive encampment in the company of other members at the territorial AMM Rendezvous (Eastern or Western) and/or the National (Rocky Mountain) AMM Rendezvous.

(5) Must be able to demonstrate the skills needed for primitive survival in the wilderness of his area and must be willing to teach said skills to other members when requested by a Party Booshway or Director of this Association.

(6) Must be able to demonstrate trapping ability using steel traps, snares, and traps made from natural materials found in the area. As many states do not allow the use of some, or any, of these traps, the actual taking of game is not required, although it is suggested where possible and legal.

(7) Must be able to demonstrate ability to track man or animal under natural wilderness conditions.

(8) Must be able to demonstrate the ability to properly pack a horse, canoe (or bullboat), or a man for distance travel under possible adverse conditions.

(9) Must be able to properly field dress (clean and skin) a game animal under primitive conditions.

(10) Must be able to start a fire in wet, as well as dry, weather using flint and steel or fire drill using tinder and wood found under natural conditions.

(11) Must be able to show ability to tan or Indian-dress hides.

(12) Must have spent at least five days traveling on foot, snowshoe, canoe, and/or horseback: (a) One method or a combination may be used, (b) Bullboat may be used in place of canoe, (c) You are expected to gain as much distance as possible, (d) This trip must be under primitive conditions, taking nothing that would not have been available to the mountain man between 1800-1840. Rifle, hunting bag, powder horn, and knife must be along.

(13) Must be able to cook a meal of meat using only the meat, fire, a knife, and materials found in nature.

(14) Must be able to converse using Plains Indians hand talk. The 200 words on page 64 of Tompkin’s book “Indian Sign Language” will be used as a basis for conversation. To complete this requirement, you must demonstrate your ability to read the signs for 50 words, as well as to give the signs for 50 words.

(15) Must have hunted for and killed at least one game or fur animal with a muzzleloading firearm or primitive bow and must have used the skin and/or meat for food, clothing and/or accoutrements. The hunt must be made from a strictly primitive camp, the hunt accomplished under primitive conditions within the limits of local game laws.

(16) Must have at least three full years of membership in the AMM.

(17) Must be able to properly skin an animal and prepare the skin for market.

(18) Must have served as a Booshway for at least two activities of the AMM.

(19) Must spend three days and two nights totally alone under primitive conditions and aux aliments du pays [“off the nourishment of the land”].

(20) Must have made a study of the life style of the mountain man, frontiersman, or American Indian before 1840 and must submit a report of this study to the association.

AMM Logo.

The American Mountain Men is a non-profit (501(c)3) organization registered in the state of Wyoming.  In the 2024 presidential election, effortlessly, Republican Party candidate Donald Trump (b 1946; US president 2017-2021; president elect 2024) secured Wyoming’s three Electoral College votes, winning a reported 72.3% of the vote against the 26.1% received by the Democratic Party’s Kamala Harris (b 1964; US vice president since 2021).  Mr Trump improved his vote compared with his performances in 2020 & 2016 when on each occasion he gained 70% of the vote, Joe Biden (b 1942; US president 2021-2025) in 2020 receiving 27% which was something of an improvement from 2016 when Wyoming’s voters rejected crooked Hillary Clinton’s (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) crooked crookedness, crooked Hillary attracting a derisory 23% of the count.

Both Wyoming’s senate seats and its single seat in the House of Representatives (Wyoming one of six states with only one representative, the others being Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota & Vermont) have for generations been held by the Republican Party and the last Democratic presidential candidate to win the state was Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1963-1969) in 1964 who in 1964 won the national election with 61.1%, the highest number of any candidate since the voting system was adopted in 1824.  LBJ won Wyoming with 56.56% against the 43.44% achieved by Senator (Republican-Arizona) Barry Goldwater (1909–1998) who, despite the disappointing numbers, was in 1964 more popular in the state than was crooked Hillary in 2016 so there was that.  An urban animal whose experience of wilderness regions has been restricted mostly to “the rough” if he’s hooked a drive off the fairway, Mr Trump might be granted honorary AMM membership because there’s some overlap between their values and the ones he professes.

"Solidly red" Wyoming spoiled by the aberration of "defiantly blue" Teton County.

Political scientists describe Wyoming as “solidly Republican” or “deeply red” and while that’s true in terms of the aggregate numbers which matter, there is the anomaly of Teton County which in 2024 voted 66.9% Harris against 31.6% for Trump.  Clearly, recalcitrant Teton is a subversively liberal enclave, rather like Austen in “deeply red Texas”, that state capital noted also as the site of one of nation's first mass-shootings at a school when, on 1 August 1966, Charles Whitman (1941-1966) shot 46, killing 15.  Although for most of the twentieth century Teton County voted Republican, in the last 20 years it has been “solidly Democratic”.  Whether related to the electoral behaviour or not, it’s in Teton County that the annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium is held, a gathering under the auspices of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City which attracts central bankers, finance ministers, academics, and financial market players from around the world.  While the city’s inhabitants now refer to the valley as Jackson Hole, Bosslopers and other AMM members probably stick to the original "Jackson's Hole" because the old ways are the best.

Primitive

Primitive (pronounced prim-i-tiv)

(1) Being the first or earliest of the kind or in existence, especially in an early age of the world.

(2) Early in the history of the world or of humankind.

(3) Characteristic of early ages or of an early state of human development.(4) In anthropology, of or relating to a preliterate or tribal people having cultural or physical similarities with their early ancestors: no longer in technical use; denoting or relating to a preliterate and nonindustrial social system.

(5) Unaffected or little affected by civilizing influences; uncivilized; a savage (some historians once distinguished between barbarians and savages on what was essentially a racist basis).

(6) Being in its earliest period; early; old-fashioned.

(7) In art, an artist of a preliterate culture; a naïve or un-schooled artist; an artist belonging to the early stage in the development of a style; a work of art by a primitive artist; an artist whose work does not conform to traditional, academic, or avant-garde standards of Western painting, such as a painter from an African or Oceanic civilization

(8) In fine art, a painter of the pre-Renaissance era in European painting (usually as "Italian primitive"); the works of these artists or in their recognizable style.

(9) In mathematics, a geometric or algebraic form or expression from which another is derived or a function of which the derivative is a given function; a function the derivative of which is a given function; an anti-derivative.

(10) In linguistics, the form from which a given word or other linguistic form has been derived, by either morphological or historical processes, as take in undertake (the most recent common ancestor (although sometimes hypothetical)).

(11) In biology, of, relating to, or resembling an early stage in the evolutionary development of a particular group of organisms; another word for primordial.

(12) In geology, pertaining to magmas that have experienced only small degrees of fractional crystallization or crystal contamination; of, relating to, or denoting rocks formed in or before the Paleozoic era (obsolete).

(13) In Protestant theology, of, relating to, or associated with a minority group that breaks away from a sect, denomination, or Church in order to return to what is regarded as the original simplicity of the Gospels.

(14) In computer programming, a data type that is built into the programming language, as opposed to more complex structures; any of the simplest elements (instructions, statements) in a programming language.

(15) In digital imagery, artistic training and certain aspects of engineering and architecture, a set of basic geometric shapes which can be used individually or from which more complex shapes can be constructed.

(16) In grammar, original; primary; radical; not derived.

1350-1400: From the Middle English primitif (of an original cause; of a thing from which something is derived; not secondary (used as both noun and adjective and originally in the sense of "original ancestor")), from the Middle French primitif (very first, original) from the Latin prīmitīvus (first or earliest of its kind), from primitus (at first), from prīmus (first).  The alternative spelling primative is long obsolete.  Primitive is a noun & adjective and primitiveness & primitivism are nouns; the noun plural is primitives.

The meaning "of or belonging to the first age" was from the early fifteenth century and was applied especially in the Christian church in the sense of "adhering to the qualities of the early Church."  The secular version of this meaning "having the style of an early or ancient time" was a nostalgic expression, an allusion to the (supposed) simplicity of the "old days" emerged in the 1680s.  The use during the era of European colonial expansion to mean "an aboriginal person in a land visited by Europeans" is from 1779, thus the idea of a primitive being an "uncivilized person".  To the colonial powers it was quite an important point to make because, being "uncivilized" (1) there could of course not be a legal system and thus no conception of the "ownership" of land and (2) such lands the Europeans "discovered" could be declared Terra nullius (from the Latin meaning "nobody's land" (literally "land belonging to nobody").  In Western anthropology, the idea persisted and by the late nineteenth century it was applied to cultures which, through isolation, had continued to operate at a technologically simple level, and even by the mid-late twentieth century it was common for mainstream historians to distinguish between "civilizations" and mere "cultures".  Reflecting both the snobby disdain for the pre Renaissance Italian primitives and perhaps as an allusion to prehistoric cave art, critics in the early 1940s applied the label "primitive" to artists thought "untrained", water-colorists seemingly a particular target.

The Italian Primitives

Technically, the phrase “Italian primitives” refers to works of art created between late eleventh and early fourteenth century with a particular emphasis on the later years.  It wasn’t until the late eighteenth century that historians and collectors first showed notable interest in Italian primitives and it’s indicative of the attitudes of the time that the artists of the era were often classified as “Italian pre-Renaissance” or “proto-Renaissance” painters; as late as the 1970s, “Italian primitives” was something of a pejorative term, such was the reverence for the works of the later Italian Renaissance, especially the High Renaissance (1495–1520), and Mannerism (1520–1600).

Two works by Cimabue (Cenni di Pepo, circa 1240–1302): Castelfiorentino Madonna (circa 1283), tempera & gold on panel (left) and Santa Trinita Maestà (circa 1295), tempera on panel (right).  The early Italian primitive style contrasted with a work representing the later intrusions of technique and dimensional imagination.  It is however misleading to speak of "early" and "late" Italian primitives in the sense of a definable stylistic shift, works with the classic Byzantine lines and form still being painted (for a receptive market) even in the early Renaissance and there would of course be a revival of sorts in some of the schools of early twentieth century modernism.

The role the Italian primitives played in the transition from the Byzantine artistic tradition to the more naturalistic and humanistic style that would later characterize the Italian Renaissance was of course acknowledged but the works themselves were usually treated as something imitative or at least derivative of the earlier techniques despite there being an obvious move away from the strict stylization and abstract qualities of Byzantine art, elements of naturalism, spatial depth, and even an exaggerated emotional expression appearing.  The Renaissance was not one of those moments in art when there was an abrupt shift from one stylistic tradition to another and the Italian primitives were part of series of developments in art, architecture and culture that typify the forces which become epoch-making.  The emphasis on perspective, anatomical accuracy and depictions of the range of human emotion so associated with the Renaissance owes much to the Italian primitives, not only in technique but also what came to be regarded as acceptable subject matter for art and one might suspect the Renaissance masters, revolutionary though they were, perhaps regarded the earlier tradition with more reverence than the critics who were so seduced by the sumptuousness of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

Crucifix of Santa Maria Novella (circa 1280), tempera on wood by Giotto (Giotto di Bondone, circa 1267-1337).  Among the Italian primitives, the works of Giotto provide some of the finest illustrations of the emergence of elements which the Renaissance masters would refine and perfect.  His Crucifix of Santa Maria Novella is very much in the vein of earlier works by Giunta Pisano (circa 1180-circa 1260) and Cimabue and details how the Italian primitives didn't wholly abandon the hieratic solemnity of Byzantine iconography but weren't constrained by their formulaic traditions, returning to a realism which would have been familiar in antiquity.  The use of embryonic techniques of perspective and chiaroscuro created a depth and volume which would later become the dominant motif in European art.

Graphics Primitives in Digital Images

Lindsay Lohan constructed in graphic primitives by MeygaHardy on DeviantArt.

In digital imagery (vector graphics, CAD systems et al), graphic (sometimes called geometric) primitives are the simplest form of shape which can be rendered and scaled for display on a screen (although in advanced engineering, as mathematical expressions, there are pure geometric primitives which can’t be displayed although they can be manipulated) and are sometime thus described as “irreducible” or “atomic”.  The origin of all graphics primitives are the point (technically the representation of a point as a point exists in space as a dimensionless address) and the straight line (that which extends from one point and another).  These lives were the original vectors and the earliest computers could handle only lines and points, thing like triangles and squares being constructed from these.  Graphic primitives are now more extensive and from assembling these, more complex shapes can be built.  Among mathematicians, there are debates about just what can be said to constitute a pure primitive, some suggesting that if a shape can be reduced to two or more shapes, it doesn’t qualify but for most they’re just handy objects and the technical squabble passes unnoticed.  The principle of graphic primitives underpinned the techniques of the early cubist artists.

Primitif by Max Factor (1956).  The use of the French adjective Primitif lent the product a continental connection but it's the masculine form, the feminine being primitive.

Kunt & Cunt

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 polite circles, there’s usually such disapprobation attached to the word “cunt” that there’s temptation to find ways to slip it in yet remain unscathed.  The word cunctation (a delay) is one route but sometimes a gift comes in the mail.  The UK’s ambassadors to the United States come and go and tend to be remembered only if already famous for something else (Lord Halifax 1881-1959; UK ambassador to the US 1940-1946), associated with notable events (Sir Roger Makins (later Lord Sherfield) 1904-1996; UK ambassador to the US 1940-1946) or notably eccentric (Sir Archibald Clark Kerr (later Lord Inverchapel) 1882-1951; UK Ambassador to the USSR 1942-1946 & the US 1946-1948).  Memories however fade and Clark Kerr is now best remembered for a note he sent in 1943, while ambassador in gloomy wartime Moscow, to Lord Pembroke (Reginald Herbert; 1880–1960), then working in the Foreign Office in London.  Serendipitously, in 1978 the note was stumbled upon in the Foreign Office’s archives during research into an unrelated matter. 

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).

In 2010 nine of the reporters graduating from the University of Utah each wrote a final column for the student newspaper, the Daily Utah Chronicle.  The student newspaper is a practical training tool in the journalism course and one of the techniques learned is the use of the drop-cap (dropped capital), a large (usually two or more lines) capital letter used as a decorative element at the beginning of a paragraph or section.  Noting this, the nine choose to put four columns in vertical alignment on one page, five on another.  The reaction was probably as valuable a lesson in journalism as any the students had learned in all their years of study.  Previously little noted beyond the campus, once the columns appeared, the paper gained world-wide publicity.

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

Unsurprisingly, the “promotional merchandise” associated with NTUnofficial's “See You in the Northern Territory” campaign did not receive the imprimatur of any level or organ of government.  The range includes wall-posters, bumper stickers, T-shirts and stubbie holders.

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.”

Refute

Refute (pronounced ri-fyoot)

(1) To prove to be false or erroneous, as an opinion or charge.

(2) To prove (a person) to be in error.

(3) To deny the truth or correctness of something (non-standard).

1505–1515: From the Middle English verb refute (in the sense of the now obsolete “refuse or reject someone or something”), from the sixteenth century Middle French réfuter, from the Old French refuite, from refuir (to flee), from the Latin refūtāre (to check, suppress, rebut, disprove; to repress, repel, resist, oppose), the construct being re- (back) + -fūtāre (to beat; drive back; rebut, disprove; repress, repel, resist, oppose), from the primitive Indo-European bhau- (to strike).  Refutable is an adjective, refuter & refutability are nouns, refutably is an adverb and the verbs (used with object) are refuted & refuting.

The meaning "prove someone wrong, prove someone to be in error, disprove and overthrow by argument or countervailing proof" dated from the 1540s, the use extended to disproving abstractions, statements, opinions etc late in the sixteenth century.  The adjective irrefutable (incapable of being disproved) emerged in the 1610s, from the Late Latin irrefutabilis (irrefutable), the construct being in- (not, opposite of) + refutabilis (refutable), from refūtāre, the derived forms in English including irrefutably & irrefutability  The noun refutation dates from the 1540s and was from the French refutacion (act of disproving; the overthrowing of an argument by countervailing argument or proof”), from the sixteenth century réfutation and directly from the Latin refutationem (nominative refutatio) (disproof of a claim or argument), the noun of action from the past-participle stem of refūtāre.  According to recent text searches of the documents digitized in recent years, the most frequently used form in Latin was refūtō (oppose, resist, rebut).

The re- prefix is from the Middle English re-, from the circa 1200 Old French re-, from the Latin re- & red- (back; anew; again; against), from the primitive Indo-European wre & wret- (again), a metathetic alteration of wert- (to turn).  It displaced the native English ed- & eft-.  A hyphen is not normally included in words formed using this prefix, except when the absence of a hyphen would (1) make the meaning unclear, (2) when the word with which the prefix is combined begins with a capital letter, (3) when the word with which the is combined with begins with another “re”, (4) when the word with which the prefix is combined with begins with “e”, (5) when the word formed is identical in form to another word in which re- does not have any of the senses listed above.  As late as the early twentieth century, the dieresis was sometimes used instead of a hyphen (eg reemerge) but this is now rare except when demanded for historic authenticity or if there’s an attempt deliberately to affect the archaic.  Re- may (and has) been applied to almost any verb and previously irregular constructions appear regularly in informal use; the exception is all forms of “be” and the modal verbs (can, should etc).  Although it seems certain the origin of the Latin re- is the primitive Indo-European wre & wret- (which has a parallel in Umbrian re-), beyond that it’s uncertain and while it seems always to have conveyed the general sense of "back" or "backwards", there were instances where the precise was unclear and the prolific productivity in Classical Latin tended make things obscure.  The Latin prefix rĕ- was from the Proto-Italic wre (again) and had a parallel in the Umbrian re- but the etymology was always murky.   In use, there was usually at least the hint of the sense "back" or "backwards" but so widely was in used in Classical Latin and beyond that the exact meaning is sometimes not clear.  Etymologists suggest the origin lies either in (1) a metathesis (the transposition of sounds or letters in a word) of the primitive Indo-European wert- (to turn) or (2) the primitive Indo-European ure- (back), which was related to the Proto-Slavic rakъ (in the sense of “looking backwards”).

The correct meaning of refute is “proving something to be incorrect” and using the word to mean “denying something is correct” is wrong.  Meanings do shift in English and alternatives can replace or run in parallel with the original and while this can sometimes baffle or annoy even native speakers, it’s just part of the way the language works, the battles waged by persistent pedants usually Sisyphean (nobody for example now uses decimate as would a Roman centurion).  However, there are cases where an insistence the original meaning be maintained (or at least understood) is helpful and refute is a good example because when used wrongly (to mean “deny”), it can lead some to conclude something as actually been proved incorrect, rather than just asserted as such.

Refute is also sometimes confused with rebut.  Rebuttal is a term from the rules of formal debate which refers to a reply although, like refutation, the word has taken on the informal and disputed meaning of denial.  In law, rebuttal also has a technical meaning in court procedure in nations with common law systems.  The rebuttal is evidence or arguments introduced to counter, disprove, or contradict the opposing party's evidence or argument, either at trial or in a reply brief and specific rules apply:  Rebuttal evidence may address only those matters raised in evidence rebutted and new subjects may not be canvassed although the rules do (almost uniquely) permit new witnesses to be called and new evidence to be produced, provided they serve to rebut the prior evidence.  In courts, rules are strictly enforced but politics and public discourse generally, what’s described as a rebuttal can be something quite discursive and follow a direction guided not at all by relevance.

news.com.au 2020: There was a time when Rupert Murdoch would have been on the phone to the editor, telling him to correct an erroneous use of "refute".

Etymologists note the argument there is some historic justification for use of refute in both ways because no distinction existed in the original Latin refūtō (oppose, resist, rebut) and Romans and others did use the word in both senses.  However, at the time of its sixteen century origins in English, refute meant “proving something to be incorrect” and nothing else.  Indeed, as early as the 1610s, the adjective irrefutable (incapable of being disproved), was in circulation (as were the related forms irrefutably & irrefutability), the point being it’s possible for things not to be able to be proved wrong but it’s impossible for them to be denied, however implausible may be the denial.  Documented instances of the erroneous use of refute appear to have been rare until recent years and there have been suggestions this is indicative of a decline in the literacy of journalists but it’s far from certain the standards of such folk were ever consistently high and it’s at least as likely the increasing misuse is a consequence of the extinction of the sub-editor (a species of linguistically competent text-checkers), journalists’ raw drafts now appearing substantially un-edited in print and on-line.  Those seeking an alternative to deny should instead use repudiate which means “to reject or refuse to acknowledge”, but without the implication of justification.

Deny, deny, deny

Mr Barilaro preparing pasta sheets.

For students of politics as theatre, John Barilaro (b 1971; member of the New South Wales (NSW, Australia) Legislative Assembly (Monaro) 2011-2021; cabinet minister 2014-2021 and Leader of the National Party (ex-Country Party) and thus deputy premier of NSW 2016-2021) has proved the gift who keeps giving.  Once famous only for his home-made lasagna (about which nobody has ever said a bad word), of late Mr Barilaro seems constantly to have been in the spotlight.  Some of the interest has been in his participation in internecine spats between the Nationals and their Liberal Party coalition partners but more dramatic was the use of a special squad of the NSW Police Force to conduct a raid on a house in connection with a defamation action Mr Barilaro had begun against the operator of a Youtube channel.  The specialist police squad used was the Fixated Persons Investigations Unit (FPIU), assembled after the Lindt Café siege (December 2014) in Sydney to investigate intelligence which suggested acts of violence or terrorism were being planned.  Whether the use such a unit in mid-2021 to stage an armed assault on the home of an employee of the channel to secure his arrest attracted some comment.  Resource allocation is of course a matter for the commissioner of police and it must be difficult to assess the competing matters of the hurt feelings of a ruling-party politician against the many women (some of whom are now dead) who, without success, sought the assistance of police to protect them from violent ex-partners.  Ultimately, the defamation matter was settled in a manner (as a former Emperor of Japan might have put it) “…not necessarily to Mr Barilaro’s advantage”.

Mr Barilaro preparing lasagna.

Still, a year later, things seemed to be looking up when Mr Barilaro, having resigned from parliament, had been appointed the state’s trade commissioner for the Americas, a position based in New York City which included a Manhattan apartment, a salary around US$400,000 (reports differ) and an expense account of another US$70,000.  Unfortunately, the good fortune quickly subsided as the circumstances of (1) the establishment of the position, (2) the re-location of the position from the west to the east coast, (3) the treatment of a another person apparently offered the position and (4) the circumstances under which Mr Barilaro was appointed began to be discussed.  Mr Barilaro announced he would, in the circumstances, not be taking up the appointment but, politicians sniffing governmental blood, the upper house of parliament convened an enquiry to attempt to determine the usual things such ad-hoc tribunals seek to find out: (1) Who did what and when and (2) who knew what and when.  By the time Mr Barilaro appeared before the enquiry on 8 August 2022, the growing scandal had already claimed one ministerial scalp although commentators seemed divided over whether Stuart Ayres’ (b 1980; deputy leader of the NSW Liberal Party 2021-2022) resignation should be thought a thing necessitated by his actions or the attempted cover-up.  Given that, just about everyone except those in the NSW government were looking forward to Mr Barilaro’s appearance and, as a set-piece of a politician trying to extricate himself for a sticky situation and reframe the narrative, his three hour performance didn’t disappoint.

Mr Barilaro serving lasagna.

He began by saying he wished he never applied for the job, later adding that he’d endured had been “unbearable… (and) what can only be described as a personal hell" and that while he was of course "disappointed" the process hadn't been "as clean as it should have been", the important point was that he was “the victim of that, not the perpetrator".  His opening remarks actually set the tone nicely, Mr Barilaro denying he sought any "special treatment" and that had he known then what he knows now, he would never have “walked into what was a shitshow”.  He also rejected suggestions he had “fast-tracked” a cabinet submission about the trade commissioner roles so he could apply for one, the submission in question being one which would have made the jobs ministerial appointments rather than positions advertised and filled in the usual manner in accordance with the regulations of the NSW public service.  The submission was proposed and passed in seven working days.  It was then put to him that the change was “fast tracked” because he well knew then-NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian would have to resign because of enquiries by the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) about an unrelated matter.  "I will absolutely refute that disgusting slur and accusation" Mr Barilaro answered, adding “You're making me out to be corrupt”.

Mr Barilaro plating lasagna.

That was of course a denial, the matter of whether allegations of corruption or procedural impropriety have been refuted something which will be decided later and Mr Barilaro should be given credit for the forthright manner of his denials, unlike one of his referees for the job (Arthur Sinodinos, b 1957; Liberal Party functionary and minister variously 2007-2019; Australian ambassador to the US since 2019) whose appearance before the ICAC in 2014 became famous for the frequency with which phrases like “I don’t recall” and “I don’t remember” were his only answers to tiresome questions.  Fortunately, the ICAC handed down no adverse findings and his memory recovered sufficiently for him to be appointed ambassador to the US in 2019 so there's that.  Mr Barilaro will again appear before the enquiry on 12 August.