eat me out

Spanish translation: Eng: cunnilingus Esp: sexo oral (hecho a una mujer)

18:58 Jun 9, 2001

English to Spanish translations [Non-PRO]

English term or phrase: eat me out

i heard it in a song

april

Spanish translation:Eng: cunnilingus Esp: sexo oral (hecho a una mujer)

Explanation:
I'm not quite positive if you want the term explained in English or translated to Spanish, but here goes both:

Only a girl can say "he ate me out" because it is slang for having cunnilingus performed on her (oral sex). If you want a more involved answer check out www.m-w.com and type in cunnilingus.

Sólo una chica puede usar esa expresión porque significa que alguien le ha hecho sexo oral (cunilinguo). La expresión no sirve para un chico.

Selected response from:

BJD
United States

Grading comment

thank you very much
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

na +1

Eng: cunnilingus Esp: sexo oral (hecho a una mujer)

BJD

na +1

cómeme

Pilar T. Bayle (X)

na +1

Ver explicación de Mamar/lamer

Raimundo

[COMMENT IN PARTING...CAN'T GET A WORD IN WEDGEWISE!]

DR. RICHARD BAVRY (X)

[ADDENDUM]

DR. RICHARD BAVRY (X)

na -1

to have sorrow or longing dominate one´s emotions

bea0

na -1

reprender (a alguien)

Hector Vargas

Answers

26 mins peer agreement (net): -1

to have sorrow or longing dominate one´s emotions

Explanation:

But I would need more context to make sure.

knowledge / diccionaries

bea0
United States
Local time: 09:25
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 79

54 mins peer agreement (net): -1

reprender (a alguien)

Explanation:
Straight translation from dictionary. "Reprender" is to reprehend, reprimand, reprove, scold.

Simon & Schuster's International Spanish Dictionary.

Hector Vargas
Colombia
Local time: 08:25
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 14

8 hrs peer agreement (net): +1

Eng: cunnilingus Esp: sexo oral (hecho a una mujer)

BJD
United States
Native speaker of:

English

Grading comment

thank you very much

1 day 4 hrs peer agreement (net): +1

cómeme

Explanation:
Without context, there is not much to say, but go for the sentence itself. It has to do with cunnilingus, oral sex performed on a female.

:-) Knowledge of slang

Pilar T. Bayle (X)
Local time: 15:25
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 183

1 day 10 hrs peer agreement (net): +1

Ver explicación de Mamar/lamer

Explanation:
Traducir "Eat out" por "sexo oral" o "comer" el coño es algo que nunca haría un español bien educado.

Explicaré por qué.

1. "Sexo oral" es un eufemismo que usan los sajones puritanos para "eat out". Pero en español usamos "mamar"; o mejor: "lamer" que es palabra preciosa y refleja el propósito que se pretende con el "cunnilinguus"

2. "Cunnilingus" vocablo latino encantador para indicar dos palabras "lengua" y "cunniculum" (conejo); es decir "lamer" el "conejo", "coño", "chocho" o como cariñosamente quiera denominársele a la excelsa intimidad femenina.

Así pues, un español educado, como buen latino actúa con la "lengua", no con las "muelas" y, por tanto, no come sino que "lame" o "mama", que palabra castiza para tan sanos menesteres.

Resumen: "eat out" se usa en el aritmético contexto de un 69 para "lamer" o "mamar" el coño. Al resultado se le denomina "lamida" o "mamada".

Una española que se precie nunca dirá a su amado que se lo "coma", sino que se lo "lama" o "mame", sonoras palabras de hondo significado (uso de la "l", "m" y doble "m"), como "mamá" que retrotrae psíquicamente al "lamedor" o "mamador" a toda una serie de traumas freudianos.etc. etc.

Lo dicho: "Lamer" o "Mamar"

Espero que te valga, avril

pd/ En rigor, la palabra "lamer" se usa para los genitales femeninos y la de "mamar" para los masculinos.

"Mamar el pene" y "Lamer el coño" sería lo que una pareja latina haría con el mejor esmero y educación. "Comer" es lo que hacen los sajones; así les luce el pelo.

Reference: http://www.ownexperience69.cunt.org

Raimundo
Local time: 14:25
Native speaker of:

Spanish
PRO pts in pair: 399

72 days

[COMMENT IN PARTING...CAN'T GET A WORD IN WEDGEWISE!]

Explanation:
As with all idioms in all languages, it is always hard to put one's finger (or lips or tongue) on what is truly appropriate or inappropriate...if you will pardon my egregious pun! May I also suggest with a smile that "cunnus" just might refer to a "wedge"...you know, that wedge-shaped unmentionable? My flight of fancy leads me to conundrums!

For our general edification (and mystification) witness [parental guidance advised]:

http://members.tripod.co.uk/mathunt/etym.html

Cunt | Etymology & Early History

'Cunt' refers literally to the female genital organs (the vagina and vulva), though it is also a highly offensive insult. Such is the word's vehemence that even in its literal sense it is very rarely used. Its Middle English variants 'cunte', 'count', and 'counte' are clearly close relatives of the modern spelling, though a definitive earlier provenance remains elusive. Etymologists have suggested that its origin is the Latin term 'cuneus', meaning 'wedge', from which 'cunnus' ('vulva') is derived. 'Wedge' and 'cunt', however, seem, initially, to be unlikely associates, as Jane Mills explains: "I know what a cunt looks like, and the word 'wedge' doesn't sort of spring to mind!" [Richardson, 1994]. She suggests the Greek Macedonian term 'guda' as an alternative source for 'cunt', and other possibilities are the Anglo-Saxon 'cynd' and, returning to Latin, 'cutis' ('skin').

The 'wedge'/'cunt' link rests on their shared 'cuneiform' (or 'cuniform'/'cuneoform') shape (from the French 'cuneiforme' and Latin 'cuneiformis', with variants such as 'cuneal' and 'cuneate'), though lexicographical opinion regarding the conclusivity of this evidence is still divided. Eric Partridge, for instance, dismisses 'cuneus' as the source of 'cunt': "[it] cannot be from the L[atin] word" [Partridge, 1937/1961]. 'Cuneus' is uncontestably the source of 'coin', leading Tim Healey to propose that there may be "an ancient pun" [Healey, 2000] at work between 'coin' and 'cunt'. The French 'bijou' means both 'jewel' and 'vagina', recalling Inga Muscio's vaginal term "anatomical jewel" [Muscio, 1998], and, if 'cunt' and 'coin' are indeed etymologically linked, a similar double entendre is possible.

The case in favour of a Latin origin is most clearly demonstrated by the term 'cunnilingus' (comically mis-spelt 'cunnilinctus' and even 'cumulo nimbus'), which means 'oral stimulation of the vagina' and is a combination of 'cunnus' and 'lingere' ('to lick'). Here, we can see that 'cunnus' (from 'cuneus') is used in direct reference to the vagina; surely the meaning, and prefix 'cun' shared by 'cunt', cannot be coincidental. 'Cunnus' also occurs in the phrase 'cunnus diaboli', which refers to medieval pagan shrines known as 'devilish cunts'. There are many terms derived from 'cunnus' which have vaginal or feminine connotations: 'Cunina' (Roman goddess who protected children in their cradles), 'cunabula' ('cradle', or 'earliest abode', thus implying 'womb'), 'cunnog' (Welsh, 'to hold milk'), 'cunicle' ('underground passage', a vaginal metaphor), 'cuniculate' ('passage open at one end', a vaginal metaphor), 'cundy' ('underground water-channel', a vaginal metaphor; also 'post-coital vaginal secretion'), 'cununa' (young Transylvanian girls who symbolised the birth of babies during wheat harvest), 'cunctipotent' ('all-knowing', implying the power of Mother Nature or a pagan goddess), and 'cush' (Arabic for 'vagina', also spelt 'kush').

The 'cu' prefix of 'cunnus' has long associations with femininity, thus its use in 'cunt' - the female genitals - is unsurprising. Eric Partridge discusses the "quintessential femineity" [Partridge, 1937/1961] of 'cu', and James McDonald explains that this word/sound, or an equivalent such as 'ku', "existed in a common Germanic language over two thousand years ago. This ancient langauge was itself evolved as an offshoot from another, older language known as Proto-Indo-European, which probably existed between four and six thousand years ago" [McDonald, 1988]. Tony Thorne writes that "in the unwritten prehistoric Indo-European [...] languages 'cu' or 'koo' was a word base expressing 'feminine', 'fecund' and associated notions" [Thorne, 1990]. 'Coo' (also spelt 'cou'), 'cooch', 'coot', 'cooter', 'cooze', 'coochie', and 'coochie snorcher' (as in The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could, one of The Vagina Monologues), are more modern derivations of 'cu'; their 'coo' prefix is a phonetic rendering of it. In Mediterranean languages, 'cu' became 'co', as in 'coynte', the French 'con' (also 'coun' and 'com', though 'cu' predates it in the Old French 'cun' and 'cunne'), the Catalan 'cony', the Spanish 'cono' (related to 'concha' and 'chocha'), and the Italian 'conno'. 'Cu' also has associations with knowledge: 'cunne' ('to persue knowledge', related to 'cunae') and 'cun' ('to know', from the Old English 'cunnan'). There is a significant linguistic connection between sex and knowledge: 'ken' can mean both 'know' and 'give birth', and one can 'conceive' both an idea and a baby. The Biblical 'know' implies sexual intercourse, and the Latin 'cognoscere', related to 'cognate', may indeed be cognate with 'cunt'. Knowledge-related words such as 'connote', 'canny', and 'cunning' may also be etymologically related to 'cunt'.

In Welsh, 'cu' is rendered 'cw', (influencing the Old English 'cwe'), as in 'cwithe' ('womb') and 'cwm' ('valley', a vaginal metaphor, Anglicised as 'coombe', 'cumb', 'coomb', and 'combe'). 'Cwm' is found in the Welsh phrase 'pobol y cwm' ('people of the valley'), which - as Pobol Y Cwm - is also the title of a Welsh soap-opera. 'Coombe' and its variants appear in placenames such as Combe House (Devon) and Duncombe Park (Yorkshire); and surnames such as Duncombe, Titcombe, Brimacombe, Coombes, Secombe, Willicombe, and Widdecombe. Buncombe County (North Carolina) is the source of the slang word 'bunkum'. Morecambe Bay is sometimes mis-spelt Morecombe: "It is not Morcombe Bay [...] it is Morcambe Bay" [Mayes, 2001]. Where I live, in Coventry, the influence of 'coombe' is clear from streetnames and local buildings: Newcombe Road, Coombe Park Road, Coombe Park Estate, Coombe Abbey, Coombe Abbey Country Park, Coombe Abbey Hotel, The Roseycombe, Coombe Street, Coombe Street Tyres, Widdecombe Close, Coombe Abbey Inn, Coombe Pool Fishery, Coombe Toolmaking Company, Salcombe Close, Hollicombe Terrace, Watcombe Road, Ashcombe Drive, Babbacombe Road, Oddicombe Croft, Coombe Avenue, Coombe Social Club, Ellacombe Road, Ilfracombe Grove, Coombe Drive, and Luscombe Road. In adjacent Rugby are Balcombe Court, Balcombe Road, and Newcombe Close.

The 'cunt' euphemism 'quim' (variants of which include 'quiff', 'quin', and 'quem') is a phonetic Anglicised spelling of 'cwm' (the Welsh version of 'cu'), and extensions of it include: 'quimsby' ('vagina'), 'quimfill' ('penis fully inserted into a vagina'), 'quimling' ('female genital stimulation', also 'quimle' and 'quimled'), 'quim nuts' ('labia'), 'quim-sticker' ('womaniser'), 'quimstake' ('penis'), 'quimwedge' ('penis'); and three terms for female pubic hair: 'quim bush', 'quim whiskers', and 'quim wig'. Related are 'queef' ('vaginal flatulence', a combination of 'quim' and 'whiff') and the fictional "Quimbledon" [The Sun, 2001] (a combination of 'Queens Park Rangers' and 'Wimbledon'). 'Quim' seems, at first, to be an unlikely relative of 'cunt', though its clear phonetic similarity to 'cwm' makes the similarity readily apparent despite its convolution.

Sharing the 'cw' prefix of 'cwm' is 'cwe' ('woman'), which can be extended to 'cwen' and 'cwene'. 'Cweman', an Old English variant of 'cuman' ('come'), is also related. Anglicised phonetically, 'cwene' became 'quean' ('impudent woman'), the source of the modern 'queen'. The contemporary appellation of 'queen' is restricted to female monarchs, though it could originally be applied to any woman. Like 'quim', its origins stem from the 'cw' prefix, and thus also from 'cu'. The Welsh 'cwen maban' ('Queen Mab') demonstrates the direct link between 'cwen' and 'queen'. It was the title given to mythical fairies' midwives, and translates literally as 'woman baby'. William Shakespeare uses it in Romeo And Juliet:

""O! then, I see, Queen Mab hath been with you."
"Queen Mab! What's she?"
"She is the fairies' midwife"" [Shakespeare, 1594].

The Greek 'ku' and 'ko' prefixes of 'kusos', 'kusthos', 'konnos', and 'konnus' ('hair', perhaps related to 'ka-t') developed in parallel to the Proto-Indo-European 'cu'; note the similarity of 'konnus' and 'cunnus'. Along with 'kus' and 'keus' (both meaning 'to conceal', perhaps implying the prohibition of nudity), they influenced 'kunton', the Hittite and Persian 'kun' ('posterior'), the Basque 'kuna' (also spelt 'cuna'), the Old Norse and Old Fresian 'kunta' (also 'kunte'), the Middle Higher German 'kotze' ('prostitute'), the Old Dutch 'kunte' (later, Middle Dutch 'conte'), and the Icelandic 'kunta'. These terms were a clear influence on 'cunt' in the Middle Ages, as, in Middle English, 'cunt' was also spelt 'kunte' and 'cunte'. Interestingly, these words include the suffix 'nt'; while the 'cu' prefix has ancient feminine associations, the 'nt' suffix has always been "difficult to explain" [Partridge, 1937/1961]. It may be that 'cunt' is a hybrid of the feminine 'cu' and the 'nt' of its Scandinavian equivalents.

'Konnos' (Greek, 'vagina') is derived from the Sanskrit 'cushi' ('ditch'). This allusion to the vagina as a ditch predates the Welsh 'cwm' (which likens it to a valley) and is replicated by the River Kennet in Wiltshire. 'Kennet', from the Celtic 'kuno' ('holy river'), was originally known as 'Cunnit': "At Silbury Hill [the river] joins the Swallowhead or true fountain of the Kennet, which the country people call by the old name of Cunnit and it is not a little famous amongst them" [Stukeley, 1743]. As Michael Dames explains, Cunnit, and the nearby Roman settlement Cunetio, make Kennet's link to 'cunt' more apparent: "we may yet rediscover the Kennet as Cunnit, and the Swallowhead as Cunt. The name of that orifice is carried downstream in the name of the river. Cunnit is Cunnt with an extra i. As late as 1740, the peasants of the district had not abandonned the nomenclature [...] The antiquity of the form is clearly shown by the Roman riverside settlement called Cunetio [now called Mildenhall] - their principal town in the entire Kennet valley" [Dames, 1976]. To one side of the River Kennet is the West Kennet long barrow, and, to the other, West Kennet Avenue. Nearby is the village of East Kennet.

The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest 'cunt' citation is dated 1230. At this time, in the Stews (brothel) area of Southwark, London, there was a street called Gropecuntelane. Similarly, there was a Gropecuntlane in Oxford (later renamed Magpie Lane), a Cunte Street in Bristol (later renamed Host Street), and, in London, a Pissing Alley and Shitteborwelane. Gropecuntelane may have been shortened to Grope Lane, and a similar (though less graphic) example can be found in York, where a Grope Lane was "renamed [Grape Lane] by staid Victorians who found the original Grope - historically related to prostitution - too blatant" [Wainwright, 2000]. In addition, the USA boasts a Ticklecunt Creek. Graeme Donald cites another form of public usage of 'cunt' as a proper noun, this time in medieval surnames, two of which predate the OED's earliest citation: "Early records mention such female names as Gunoka Cuntles (1219), Bele Wydecunte (1328) and presumably promiscuous male sporting names such as Godwin Clawecunte (1066), John Fillecunt (1246) and Robert Clevecunt (1302)" [Donald, 1994]. Explaining that "Any part of the body which was unusual [or] remarkable was likely to provide a convenient nickname or surname for its owner" [McDonald, 1988], James McDonald cites the further example of Simon Sitbithecunte (1167, again predating the OED).

My own surname, Hunt, also has associations with 'cunt'. I have lost count of the number of times I have been called 'Mike' ('Mike Hunt', which sounds like 'my cunt') or 'Isaac' ('Isaac Hunt', or 'I's a cunt'). Similarly, in Porky's, a female character asks: "Has anyone seen Mike Hunt?" [Clark, 1982], and the phrase is also used on the American radio show Bob And Tom. In Australian slang, 'Michael', from 'Michael Hunt' ('Mike Hunt'), is a euphemism for 'cunt'. There are (unfortunately for me, given my name) a plethora of 'Hunt'/'cunt' comparisons: I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue has been introduced as "the show that is to panel games what James Hunt is to rhyming slang!" [I'm..., 1998], in Head On Comedy a joke was made about "William Hunt" [Marr, 2000], and the "rhyming slang potential" [McLean, 2001] of 'Mr Hunt' has been commented upon. 'Colin Hunt' is another rhyming 'cunt' euphemism: "Colin Hunt, the perpetual office joker in The Fast Show, is evoked. That's all they are, really. A bunch of Colin Hunts" [Catchpole, 2001]. 'Helen Hunt' has, rather coyly, been proposed as rhyming slang for 'runt': "Jeffrey Archer is such a Helen [...] Helen Hunt (runt)" [Dinning, 2001].

In cockney rhyming slang, 'Charlie Hunt' (abbreviated to 'Charlie'), 'Joe Hunt' (abbreviated to 'Joey'), and 'Sir Anthony Blunt' are all euphemisms for 'cunt', as are the more cryptic 'Sir Berkeley' and 'Lady Berkeley'. The 'Berkeley'-'cunt' connection stems from the rhyming slang term 'Berkeley Hunt' (also known as 'Berkshire Hunt', 'Burlington Hunt', and 'Birchington Hunt'). It is from this that the mild insult 'berk' is abbreviated, thus, "what these people are saying when they say 'You're a right berk', what they're actually saying is 'You're a right cunt', which is much more obscene" [Richardson, 1994]. The widespread usage of 'berk' has been attributed to its frequent appearences in the situation comedy Steptoe And Son, and it is referenced in the song Berkshire Cunt by Conflict (1996). Other rhyming slang terms for 'cunt' are 'eyes front', 'Grannie Grunt', 'groan and grunt', 'gasp and grunt', 'growl and grunt', 'grumble and grunt' (abbreviated to 'grumble'), 'sharp and blunt', and 'National Front'. (A more comical Cockney 'cunt' variant is 'cahnt', as in "You cahnt!" [Collis, 2001].) In backslang, 'cunt' is 'tenuc' or 'teenuc', the extra 'e's being added to ease pronunciation. 'Big cunt' in backslang is 'gib teenuc', and 'cunt' in pig Latin is 'untcay'. Phonetically, 'cunt' is found in otherwise innocuous words and names such as 'Fabricant', 'lubricant', 'replicant', 'supplicant', 'applicant', and 'significant'. Incredibly, 'cunt' is to be found, spelt out in full, in 'Scunthorpe', the Humberside town, which causes problems when the name is blocked by internet filtering software: "all references to Scunthorpe are filtered out of [...] online chat room[s]" [Naughton, 2000].

Like rhyming slang, limericks also rely on rhyme for their effect:

'An innovative fellow called Hunt
trained his prick to [...] be used as a cunt';
'There was a young squaw of Chokdunt
Who had a collapsible cunt
[that] fitted both giant and runt';

'Two innocent ladies from Grimsby
Inquired, 'Of what use can our quims be?[']'.

'Cunt' is known euphemistically as 'the monosyllable' and 'the venerable monosyllable', though, paradoxically, its earliest forms, such as 'cunte', 'cunnus', and 'kunta', are all disyllabic. Another 'cunt' euphemism is 'constable', due to the phonetic similarity of 'const' and 'cunt'. In fact, 'thingstable' is a recognised euphemism for 'constable', acknowledging the 'cunt' link. More recently, the connection has been extended to 'cunt stubble' (phonetically similar to 'const able'). 'Cunning stunts' is a Spoonerism of 'stunning cunts' (later imitated by the comedy character Cupid Stunt/Stupid Cunt); Cunning Stunts is also the name of a female theatre group. 'The big C' is another 'cunt' euphemism: "the big "C". No, I'm not talking Cancer. I'm talking Cunt" [Petkovich, 199-]. A handy two-birds-with-one-stone euphemism for both 'fuck' and 'cunt' is the phrase 'effing and ceeing'. 'Cunt', in print, is often censored as 'c***', though 'c...' ("She'd come out with f... and c..." [wallace, 1997]), 'cxxt' ("Just a couple of cxxts" [Cook & Moore, 1976a]), 'c---', 'c**t' ("the c**t comedian" [Lucas, 2000]), 'c*nt', '*unt', and '****' have also been used. Using asterisks in this way, to replace letters (often vowels), serves to accentuate a word's obscenity, drawing attention to its unprintability: "c***try" [Heath, 1994] and "Gropec***lane" [Goldman, 1999], for instance, draw attention to their respective links to 'cunt' precisely because the offending word has been obscured. "QU*YNTE" [Heath, 1994], by removing the 'e', actually increases the similarity to 'cunt'.

The commonest euphemism for 'cunt' is 'the c-word', which also appears as 'the 'c' word' ("using the 'c' word" [Casey, 2001]), 'the C-word', 'the C word' ("a stronger insult than "nana" [...] the C word" [Lucas, 2000]), and 'the 'C' word'. In punning references to 'cunt', words such as 'cancer' ("Don't mention the c-word" [The Guardian, 2000]), 'class' ("the c-word - class" [Birkett, 2001]), and 'context' ("Ah, the c-word: context" [Shone, 1994]) have also occasionally been called 'c-words'. 'The c-word' is common in headlines and titles, because it can be used as a pun - The C Word ('celebrity'), by Stephen Fry (1992); Conservative Candidates Told To Avoid The 'C' Word ('Conservative'), by Andrew Grice (2001) - and because it avoids the need for large asterisks - I Heard Maureen Lipman Say The 'C' Word! by Catherine Bennett (2001). (Children have been known to mistake 'the K-word' for 'the C-word' - "Is it the K-word?" [Carr, 2001] - and 'clint' for 'cunt' - "Mummy, clint! That's a rude word, isn't it? Clint!".)

An affectionate synonym for 'cunt' is 'cunny', which shares the 'cun' stem and appears in terms such as 'cunny-thumbed' ('groped'), 'cunny-burrow' ('vagina'), 'cunny-burrow ferret', 'cunny-burrow mouse', 'cunny-catching', 'cunny-hunter', 'cunny-catcher' ('penis'), 'cunny-thumper', 'cunny-fingered', 'cunny-warren' ('vagina' or 'brothel'), 'cunnikin', 'cunnyskin' ('pubic hair'), and 'cunny-haunted' ('sexually excited'). 'Cunny' is derived from 'coney'/'cony', meaning 'young rabbit', though, in an effort to minimise the scurrilous synonym's impact, 'cony' was phased out and the meaning of 'rabbit' was extended to animals both young and old. To retain the influence of 'cunny', the rhyming alternative 'bunny' (as in 'bunny-rabbit') was substituted. Spanish provides a similar example: 'conejo' (from the Latin 'cuniculus') means both 'rabbit' and 'cunt'.

Like 'cunny', 'country' also has deep-rooted associations with 'cunt' (such as the Old French words 'cuntree' and 'cunte', which mean 'country' and 'county' respectively). The similarity of 'cunt' and 'country' has been highlighted by Billy Connolly, who called himself "the man who put the 'cunt' in 'country music!" [Graef, 1979]. Terry Wogan has joked about 'country and western' sounding obscene, and Lily Savage joked that she would release an album called "Total Country" [Kinane, 2000]. Also, there is a rock band called Nu Cuntry ('new country') and a song called Cuntrie Girl ('country girl') by Da Shortiez (1999). The most famous use of 'country' to mean 'cunt' is surely Shakespeare's "country matters" [Shakespeare, 1604], and John Donne's The Good Morrow is a slightly later example:

"I wonder by my troth, what thou, and I
Did, till we lov'd? were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers den?" [Donne, 1633].
While the 'cunt'/'country' confusion is a result of euphemism and deliberate word-play, the similarity between 'count' and 'cunt' is so striking that accidental obscenities abound: "It is a likely speculation that the Norman French title Count was abandoned in England in favour of the Germanic Earl [...] precisely because of the uncomfortable phonetic proximity to cunt" [Hughes, 1991]. Graham Norton once read out the phrase "COUNT IN HAWIAN" [Smith, 2000], and, after hearing laughter, qualified it with "No, 'COUNT'!". A sign advertising a Millenium party in Singapore was intended to read 'Countdown [19]99', with the 'o' of 'Countdown' represented not by a letter but by a circular light. Unfortunately, the light did not shine brightly enough, thus rendering the sign as "C untdown [19]99" [Private..., 1999b]. An identical instance was deliberately created when the first 'O' of a fake cinema sign was lower than the rest of the text: "THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO" [Marquee..., 1998]. (Returning briefly to 'country', a missing 'O' also caused problems when the headline "PROTECTING THANET'S CUNTRYSIDE" [Adscene, 2000] appeared, due to a subeditor's typographical mistake.) In Baddiel's Syndrome, a character described himself as "an absolute count" [Baddiel's..., 2001], and an election edition of Have I Got News For You once ended with the words: "So, for our winners: the chance to go to Michael Portillo's constituency and see the count. For our losers: the chance to retype that sentence without the spelling mistake!" [Wheeler, 1997].

'Cunt'-related words and phrases include: 'amacunt' ("amsomarvellous, amanartist, amacunt" [Private..., 1999a]), 'custard' ("crossing the word 'cunt' with the word 'bastard' [...] you get 'custard'" [Thomas, 1994]), 'cuntion' ("prime first class cuntion"[White, 2000]), 'cunted', 'cunt-faced', 'cunty', 'double-cunted', 'sluice-cunted', 'bushel-cunted', 'cow-cunted', 'cuntbag', 'cunt-line' (later replaced by 'cont-line'), 'cunt-splicing' (later replaced by 'cut-splicing'), 'Cunt Pump', 'cunting', 'cunt bubble', 'cunt-struck', 'cunt fart', 'cunt-stretcher', 'cunt-curtain', 'cunt-shop', 'cunt-pensioner', 'cunt-hat', 'cunt-teaser', 'cunt-hooks', 'cunt-itch', 'cunt-stand', 'cunt-screen', 'doss cunt', 'cunt-cap', 'cunthead', 'cunt-collar', 'cunt-eyed', 'cunt-hair', 'cunt-tickler', 'cunt-wagon', 'Cunty McCuntlips', 'cunt-starver', 'cunt-hound', 'cuntish', 'cunt-laird', 'mouth like a cow's cunt', 'cunt-licker', 'cunt-sucker', 'cunt-lapper', 'cuntface', 'red c', 'cunt and a half', 'Cunts In Velvet', 'cuntur' (later replaced by 'condor'), 'fuckshitwankcunts', 'shaggy-cunt', Army Service Cunts, and 'see you next tuesday' (euphemism, with 'see you' sounding like 'c u', 'n' and 't' being the initial letters of 'next' and 'tuesday').

'Cunt' acronyms include: "Carlton United Network Television" [British..., 1999], "Concentration, Understanding, Nouce, and Tenacity" [Mylod, 1997], CharlieUncleNorfolkTango (book by Tony White, 1999), "Completely Unbearable Neo-Trash Shoreditchians" [O'Connell, 2000], "Cuddly Uncle Ned's Trio" [Spencer, 2001], 'Can't Understand Normal Thinking' (military acronym), (the apocryphal) 'Cambridge University New Testament Society', and (the unintentional) 'Coventry University Netball Team'.

In some contexts, 'cunt' remained a socially acceptable word until very recently: "in rural areas [of England in the 1960s] the word was still being used as an ordinary everyday term, at least when applied to a cow's vulva" [McDonald, 1988]. It did not appear in modern dictionaries uncensored until Penguin's English Dictionary of 1965. Terence Meaden suggests that the legal suppression of 'cunt' constituted "a series of vicious witch hunts encouraged by an evil establishment wishing to suppress what amounted to apparent signs of Goddess beliefs" [Meadon, 1992], and, indeed, there was a 'Kuntah' tribe in the Sahara, and, in India, a group called 'Kundas' who worshiped the goddess 'Kundah' or 'Cunti'. Ptah-Hotep may have used the term when addressing an Egyptian goddess, perhaps in the form of 'quefen-t'.

'Cunt' was used anatomically and biologically by Lanfranc, who, in the early fifteenth century, wrote: "In women the neck of the bladder is short, & is made fast to the cunte" [Lanfranc, 14--]. Two hundred years later, however, the 'cunt' taboo was firmly in place, and John Fletcher resorted to: "They write sunt with a C, which is abominable" [Fletcher, 1622]. It is not possible to unequivocally identify the date from which 'cunt' first became taboo, though we can use the available evidence to make a rational estimate.

The 'cunt' streetname Gropecuntelane dates from 1230, indicating that, at that time, the word may have been bawdy but was not obscene. Similarly, the earliest example of a 'cunt' surname is that of the violent-sounding Godwin Clawecunte from 1066, and the latest is the capacious Bele Wydecunte's from 1328. Lanfranc, writing one hundred years later, does not disguise the word, though Geoffrey Chaucer does. Chaucer, in his Tales Of Caunterbury, employs the deliberately faux-archaic spelling 'queynte' (variants: 'queynt', 'qwaynt', 'coynte', and 'coint'; modern spelling: 'queint') as a substitute for 'cunt'. 'Queynte' is an extension of 'quene' ('hussy', an alternative spelling of 'cwene', from 'cwe'), and it is another demonstration of the link between knowledge and sex: Chaucer uses 'queynte'-related terms such as 'queyntelich', 'queyntely', and 'quentise' to mean 'cunning'. To form 'queynte', he has added the 'nte' medieval suffix of 'cunt' to the feminine 'qu' prefix (a variant of 'cu'), in a deliberate effort to disguise 'cunt'. Andrew Marvell uses similar literary camoflage in To His Coy Mistress, with a reference to "quaint honour" [Marvell, 1653]:

"Thy beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: the worms shall try
That long preserved virginity:
And your quaint honour turn to dust;
And into ashes all my lust".
The Tales Of Caunterbury, which are full of other, lesser, swear-words such as 'shit' and 'piss' but not the tabooed 'cunt' (except in disguised form), were written at the very end of the fourteenth century, thus it seems that, throughout the Middle Ages, 'cunt' was an acceptable term, becoming taboo during the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries. There was almost certainly a period of transition, during which the status of the word gradually changed from acceptability to taboo, just as, five hundred years later, it is finally in slow transition again, from taboo to acceptability.

curiosity unmarred by prurience

DR. RICHARD BAVRY (X)
PRO pts in pair: 8

72 days

[ADDENDUM]

Explanation:
Should I not have, by way of caution, stated that this was the "eat 'em ology" of the phrase?

James Joyce "Finnegan's Wake"

DR. RICHARD BAVRY (X)
PRO pts in pair: 8

Login or register (free and only takes a few minutes) to participate in this question.

You will also have access to many other tools and opportunities designed for those who have language-related jobs (or are passionate about them). Participation is free and the site has a strict confidentiality policy.

Return to KudoZ list

KudoZ™ translation help

The KudoZ network provides a framework for translators and others to assist each other with translations or explanations of terms and short phrases.

See also:

ProZ.com term search

Search millions of term translations