A History of the C-Word

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

WARNING: This episode includes adult content and explicit language. As offensive terms go, you are entering a hard hat area.

It’s one of the most taboo words in the English dictionary. In Scotland, it can be a term of endearment, but in the US it's one of the worst offences out there, and it would more than likely get you fired if you said it to your boss at work. It starts with c, and ends in t and we're not talking about a coconut.

Kate is joined Betwixt the Sheets for our 100th episode by our favourite Kathy Burke and linguist legend Professor Deborah Cameron to talk about the etymology and cultural meaning of the c-word.

Why is a word that simply means the vulva regarded as the most offensive word in the English language? Where does the word come from? And were medieval people really calling their children the c-bomb?

Senior Producer: Charlotte Long. Producer: Sophie Gee. Mixed by Stuart Beckwith.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	What's that? No, it's not a terrible impression of a 90s rave. That's actually my siren noise,
0:09.3	my warning siren to be exact because I have been told in quite a serious way that I have
0:16.1	to be very serious when I'm giving you the warning about this episode. So I thought that
0:21.8	if I gave a siren that it's definitely serious then, like how many warnings come with a siren,
0:27.6	this one does. This one definitely does. And why is this one extra specially naughty?
0:33.9	Well, it's because we're only looking at the history of the sea bomb.
0:39.7	Yes, we are. And that is such a divisive and naughty and scandalous word. It still has such power
0:47.5	that I have been told that you need to have an extra specially strong warning. So everybody
0:55.0	knows what they're getting into in this episode. Will that do? Do you feel seriously warned?
1:01.6	Right. Well, now that I've given you the extra serious warning, I'll give you your fair dues
1:05.9	warning. Fair dues. This is definitely an episode that's going to offend some people.
1:10.4	Absolutely. I mean, you'd kind of upset if it wasn't, right? But for anybody that's new here,
1:16.6	for anybody that perhaps wasn't quite aware of what they were stumbling into,
1:20.9	this is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things in an adulty way
1:26.4	and you have to be an adult as well. So now you've been warned and if you stay with us and if you
1:32.8	listen to this episode and your delicate shell likes are offended, well fair dues, we did warn you.
1:40.5	For the rest of you monkey books who just can't get enough of this, you are my people and I am ready
1:46.8	if you are. It's one of the most to-be-words in English language. It just is. In Scotland, for
1:56.1	example, it's a term of endearment. But if you say it in the US, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
2:02.8	it is seriously offensive. And it's very context dependent, isn't it? My friends quite happily
2:09.9	call me a silly cunt all day long, but if my boss said it to me at work, they'd still be right,
2:15.6	but they'd probably be fired. Here's the question that we're looking into today. Why is it so
	...

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