cunt

   A reference to the female pudenda, but this is considered an obscene word in all English-speaking countries, to be strictly avoided in polite society. In the USA used as a term of contempt of or to a woman. ‘Look at me, woman. Hey you cunt, look me in the eye,’ says a black American male to a white girl in Rabbit Redux, by John Updike. ‘You queer like your friend?’ asks a woman in Looking for Mr Goodbar, by Judith Rossner. ‘No, cunt, I’m not queer like my friend,’ is the reply, with the additional comment: ‘God is my witness, I never talked that way to a woman in my life.’ In Britain ‘you cunt’ is frequently addressed to men, as if it were a synonym for ‘bastard’. It is not one of those insults that can easily be turned into a friendly term of address when used between intimates. ‘Oh shut up, you silly little cunt’ is spoken by a young woman to a man in Festival, by N.J.Crisp. That ‘cunt’ can be used to a man by an American speaker is shown in The Choirboys, by Joseph Wambaugh. ‘Wake up, Roscoe, you cunt!’ is said by a Los Angeles policeman to a colleague.