Editing Cunt (section)

==Usage: pre-twentieth century==
''Cunt'' has been attested in its anatomical meaning since at least the 13th century. While [[Francis Grose]]'s 1785 ''A Classical Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue'' listed the word as "C**T: a nasty name for a nasty thing",<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/aclassicaldicti00grosgoog|last1= Grose |first1= Francis |title= A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue |date=1788 |location=London |publisher= S. Hooper |quote=C**T. ... a nasty name for a nasty thing}} (immediately following ''Cunny-thumbed'')</ref> it did not appear in any major English dictionary from 1795 to 1961, when it was included in ''[[Webster's Dictionary|Webster's Third New International Dictionary]]'' with the comment "usu. considered obscene". Its first appearance in the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' was in 1972, which cites the word as having been in use from 1230 in what was supposedly a London street name of "Gropecunte Lane". It was, however, also used before 1230, having been brought over by the [[Anglo-Saxon]]s, originally not an [[obscenity]] but rather an ordinary name for the vulva or vagina. [[Gropecunt Lane]] was originally a street of prostitution, a [[red light district]]. It was normal in the [[Middle Ages]] for streets to be named after the goods available for sale therein, hence the prevalence in cities having a medieval history of names such as "Silver Street" and "Fish Street". In some locations, the former name has been [[Thomas Bowdler|bowdlerised]], as in the City of York, to the more acceptable "[[Grape Lane]]".<ref>Baker, N. & Holt, R. (2000). "Towards a geography of sexual encounter: prostitution in English medieval towns", in L. Bevan: ''Indecent Exposure: Sexuality, Society and the Archaeological Record''. Cruithne Press: Glasgow, pp. 187–98.</ref>

The somewhat similar word 'queynte' appears several times in [[Chaucer]]'s ''[[Canterbury Tales]]'' (c. 1390), in [[bawdy]] contexts, but since it is used openly, does not appear to have been considered obscene at that time.<ref name="Siebert">{{cite web |first1=Eve |last1=Siebert |publisher=Skeptical Humanities |title=Chaucer's Cunt |url=http://skepticalhumanities.com/2011/01/18/chaucers-cunt/ |access-date=28 February 2014|date=18 January 2011 }}</ref> A notable use is from the "[[The Miller's Prologue and Tale|Miller's Tale]]": "Pryvely he caught her by the queynte." The [[Wife of Bath]] also uses this term, "For certeyn, olde dotard, by your leave/You shall have queynte right enough at eve&nbsp;.... What aileth you to grouche thus and groan?/Is it for ye would have my queynte alone?" In modernised versions of these passages the word "queynte" is usually translated simply as "cunt".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.librarius.com/canttran/wifetale/wifetale330-342.htm |title=From Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbury Tales'', The Wife of Bath's Prologue, lines 330–342 |publisher=Librarius.com |access-date=18 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.4literature.net/Geoffrey_Chaucer/Wife_of_Bath_s_Prologue/3.html|title=Wife of Bath's Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=30 December 2016}}</ref> However, in Chaucer's usage there seems to be an overlap between the words "cunt" and "quaint" (possibly derived from the [[Latin]] for "known"). "Quaint" was probably pronounced in Middle English in much the same way as "cunt". It is sometimes unclear whether the two words were thought of as distinct from one another. Elsewhere in Chaucer's work the word ''queynte'' seems to be used with meaning comparable to the modern "quaint" (curious or old-fashioned, but nevertheless appealing).<ref>{{OED|'''4''' quaint, a. (adv.) (at '''7''', '''8''') c'''1369''' Chaucer ''Dethe Blaunche'' 1330 This is so queynt a sweuyn.}}</ref> This ambiguity was still being exploited by the 17th century; [[Andrew Marvell]]'s ''... then worms shall try / That long preserved virginity, / And your quaint honour turn to dust, / And into ashes all my lust'' in ''[[To His Coy Mistress]]'' depends on a pun on these two senses of "quaint".<ref>Marvell, Andrew. "To His Coy Mistress". ''[[Norton Anthology of English Literature]]''. Seventh Edition. M. H. Abrams. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. 1691–1692.</ref>

By [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] day, the word seems to have become obscene. Although Shakespeare does not use the word explicitly (or with [[derogatory]] meaning) in his plays, he still uses [[Word play|wordplay]] to sneak it in obliquely. In Act III, Scene 2, of ''[[Hamlet]]'', as the castle's residents are settling in to watch the [[Story within a story#Nested plays|play-within-the-play]], Hamlet asks his girlfriend [[Ophelia (character)|Ophelia]], "Lady, shall I lie in your lap?" Ophelia replies, "No, my lord." Hamlet, feigning shock, says, "Do you think I meant ''country matters''?" Then, to drive home the point that the [[Stress (linguistics)|accent]] is definitely on the first [[syllable]] of ''country'', Shakespeare has Hamlet say, "That's a fair thought, to lie between maids' legs."<ref>Partridge, Eric, ''Shakespeare's Bawdy'', Routledge, London, 2001, p. 111.</ref> In ''[[Twelfth Night]]'' (Act II, Scene V) the puritanical Malvolio believes he recognises his employer's handwriting in an anonymous letter, commenting "There be her very Cs, her Us, and her Ts: and thus makes she her great Ps", unwittingly punning on "cunt" and "piss",<ref name="Silverton" /> and while it has also been argued that the slang term "cut" is intended,<ref>{{cite book|first=Bruce R.|last=Smith|title=Twelfth night, or, What you will: texts and contexts |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2001|page=64}}</ref> Pauline Kiernan writes that Shakespeare ridicules "prissy puritanical party-poopers" by having "a Puritan spell out the word 'cunt' on a public stage".<ref>{{cite book|first=Pauline|last=Kiernan|title=Filthy Shakespeare: Shakespeare's Most Outrageous Sexual Puns|publisher=Quercus|year=2006|page=61}}</ref> A related scene occurs in ''[[Henry V (play)|Henry V]]'': when Katherine is learning English, she is appalled at the ''gros, et impudique'' words "foot" and "gown", which her teacher has mispronounced as ''coun''. It is usually argued that Shakespeare intends to suggest that she has misheard "foot" as ''foutre'' (French, "fuck") and "coun" as ''con'' (French "cunt", also used to mean "idiot").<ref>Partridge, Eric, ''Shakespeare's Bawdy'', Routledge, London, 2001, p. 110.</ref>

Similarly, [[John Donne]] alludes to the obscene meaning of the word without being explicit in his poem ''[[The Good-Morrow]]'', referring to sucking on "country pleasures". The 1675 [[Restoration comedy]] ''[[The Country Wife]]'' also features such word play, even in its title.<ref>{{Cite book |title= The Country Wife |last= Wycherley |first=William |editor1-last=Ogden |editor1-first=James |editor2-last= Stern |editor2-first= Tiffany |edition=2nd, annotated |isbn=978-1-4081-7990-1 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ALlMAgAAQBAJ |date= 2014 |publisher= Bloomsbury, A&C Black |at = page 15, editor's note for line 189 }}</ref>

By the 17th century, a softer form of the word, "cunny", came into use. A well-known use of this derivation can be found in the 25 October 1668 entry of the diary of [[Samuel Pepys]]. He was discovered having an affair with Deborah Willet: he wrote that his wife "coming up suddenly, did find me embracing the girl con [with] my hand sub [under] su [her] coats; and endeed I was with my main [hand] in her cunny. I was at a wonderful loss upon it and the girl also&nbsp;...."<ref>{{cite book |last=Abbot |first=Mary |title=Life Cycles in England, 1560–1720: Cradle to Grave |publisher= Routledge |year= 1996 |page=91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sCI1nnR1_zAC|isbn=978-0-415-10842-3 }}</ref>

''Cunny'' was probably derived from a [[pun]] on ''[[coney (disambiguation)|coney]]'', meaning "rabbit", rather as ''[[pussy]]'' is connected to the same term for a cat. ([[Philip Massinger|Philip Massinger (1583–1640)]]: "A pox upon your Christian [[cockatrices]]! They cry, like poulterers' wives, 'No money, no coney.'")<ref name=ship>Ship, Joseph Twadell. ''The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots'', JHU Press, 1984, p. 129.</ref> Because of this slang use as a synonym for a taboo term, the word "coney", when it was used in its original sense to refer to rabbits, came to be pronounced as {{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|oʊ|n|i}} (rhymes with "phoney"), instead of the original {{IPA|/ˈkʌni/}} (rhymes with "honey"). Eventually, the taboo association led to the word "coney" becoming deprecated entirely and replaced by the word "rabbit".<ref name=ship/><ref>Carney, Edward, ''A survey of English spelling'', Routledge, 1994, p. 469.</ref><ref>Morton, Mark, ''Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities'', Insomniac Press, 2004, p. 251.</ref><ref>Allan & Burridge, ''Forbidden Words'', Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 242.</ref>

[[Robert Burns]] (1759–1796) used the word in his ''[[:wikisource:Merry Muses of Caledonia|Merry Muses of Caledonia]]'', a collection of bawdy verses which he kept to himself and were not publicly available until the mid-1960s.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.robertburns.org.uk/merrymuses.htm | title= Merry Muses of Caledonia by Robert Burns | access-date=6 March 2008 |format = HMTL}}</ref> In "Yon, Yon, Yon, Lassie", this couplet appears: "For ilka birss upon her cunt, Was worth a ryal ransom"<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Documents/merrymuses.PDF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050111041917/http://www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Documents/merrymuses.PDF |archive-date=11 January 2005 |url-status=live |title= Merry Muses of Caledonia by Robert Burns | access-date=6 March 2008 }}</ref> ("For every hair upon her cunt was worth a royal ransom"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Silverton |first1=Pete |title=Filthy English: the how, why, when, and what of everyday swearing |date=2009 |publisher=Portobello Books |location=London |isbn=9781846271694 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSErq0ssG74C&dq=For+ilka+birss+upon+her+cunt,+Was+worth+a+ryal+ransom&pg=PT42 |access-date=23 February 2021}}</ref>).