Etymograph

English

cunt

Cunt comes from Middle English cunte ‘vagina’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *kuntǭ ‘female pudenda’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kuntǭ‘female pudenda’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kuntāreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*cuntereconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cunte‘vagina’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1928cunt

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kuntǭ‘female pudenda’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kuntāreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*cuntereconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cunte‘vagina’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1928cunt

Earliest quotation: 1928, David Herbert Lawrence: “An' doesn't ter know? Cunt! It's thee down theer;…”

The story

A relationship to Latin cunnus has not been conclusively shown. Lexicographer Partridge suggests cuneus (‘a wedge’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn ‘woman’

gynecology, 14 more

Today it means

noun The female genitalia, especially the vulva.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *kuntǭ / cunt

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