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.”