cunnus
Latin edit
Etymology edit
Uncertain. Various theories include:
- Proto-Indo-European *kutnos (“cover”),[1][2] cognate with cutis (“skin”). The metaphor is identical to the one connecting Latin vulva and English hull, albeit from a different Indo-European root.
- A relationship to Latin cuneus (“wedge”).
- From Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”), evolved from an original sense of “gash”, “slit”.
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈkun.nus/, [ˈkʊnːʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈkun.nus/, [ˈkunːus]
Noun edit
cunnus m (genitive cunnī); second declension
- (vulgar) cunt, cunny (obscene word for the vulva)
- (vulgar, synecdochically) a woman
- 40/41 CE, Horatius, Sermones, I, 3, 107:
- nam fuit ante Helenam cunnus taeterrima bellī
causa, sed ignōtīs periērunt mortibus illī,
quōs venerem incertam rapientīs mōre ferārum
vīribus ēditior caedēbat ut in grege taurus.- For before Helen's time there existed (many) a woman who was the dismal cause of war: but those fell by unknown deaths, whom pursuing uncertain venery, as the bull in the herd, the strongest slew.
Declension edit
Second-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | cunnus | cunnī |
Genitive | cunnī | cunnōrum |
Dative | cunnō | cunnīs |
Accusative | cunnum | cunnōs |
Ablative | cunnō | cunnīs |
Vocative | cunne | cunnī |
Descendants edit
See also edit
- cūlus (“anus, arse”)
- cūnae (“cradle, nest for young birds”)
- cuneus (“wedge”)
- cunīculus (“rabbit”)
- cunnilingus (“cuntlicker”)
References edit
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “cunnus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 154
- ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “*hauþan-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 217
Further reading edit
- “cunnus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “cunnus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers