Cunt

Cunt /ˈkʌnt/ is a vulgar term for female genitalia, and is also used as a term of disparagement. Reflecting different national usages, cunt is described as "an unpleasant or stupid person" in the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, whereas Merriam-Webster indicates that it is a "usually disparaging and obscene" term for a woman or an "offensive way to refer to a woman" in the United States. The Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English gives "a contemptible person". When used with a positive qualifier (good, funny, clever, etc.) in Britain, New Zealand, and Australia, it can convey a positive sense of the object or person referred to.

The earliest known use of the word, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was as a placename for the London street Gropecunt Lane, c. 1230. Use of the word as a term of abuse is relatively recent, dating from the late nineteenth century. The word appears to have not been strongly taboo in the Middle Ages, but became taboo towards the end of the eighteenth century, and was then not generally admissible in print until the latter part of the twentieth century. The term has various derivative senses, including adjective and verb uses. Scholar Germaine Greer argues that cunt "is one of the few remaining words in the English language with a genuine power to shock."