Where does cunt come from?

Cunt is one of the most offensive and hateful words in the English language. The exact origins of the word cunt are unknown, but it’s recorded in the early 1200s as the name of a street in Oxford, England called Gropecuntlane, apparently a reference to prostitution.

Both Chaucer and Shakespeare made puns on cunt. Seventeenth-century English poet John Wilmot went so far as to write a very lewd poem titled “Advice to a Cunt Monger.” In the late 1700s, slang lexicographer Francis Grose defined cunt as “a nasty name for a nasty thing.” And D.H. Lawrence’s controversial 1928 novel Lady Chatterly’s Lover used cunt many times.

In the 1970s, Judy Chicago’s Cunt Art, a feminist art movement, sought to reclaim the word through traditionally feminine media, such as embroidery. Inga Musico embraced the word in her 1998 feminist manifesto Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. Eve Ensler’s 1996 hit play, The Vagina Monologues, devotes an entire monologue to reclaiming the word:

I love that word. I can’t say it enough. I can’t stop saying it. Feeling a little irritated at the airport? Just say “cunt” and everything changes. “What did you say?” I said “Cunt, that’s right, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt.” It feels so good. Try it. Go ahead. Go ahead. Cunt. Cunt. Cunt. Cunt.

For women who have reclaimed the word, cunt is a powerful statement of female power and sexuality. However, cunt remains one of the most offensive words in English because of the way it reduces a women to her sexual organs or treats female sexual organs with contempt.