cunnus
Latin
Etymology
Uncertain. Various theories include:
- Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn (“woman”), whence it would be cognate with Mycenaean Greek 𐀓𐀙𐀊 (ku-na-ja), Old English cwene, Proto-Slavic *žena, Sanskrit जनि (jani);
- Proto-Indo-European *kutnos (“cover”), 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
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈkun.nus/, [ˈkʊnːʊs̠]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈkun.nus/, [ˈkunːus]
Noun
cunnus m (genitive cunnī); second declension
- woman
- 40/41 CE, Horatius, Sermones, I, 3, 107:
- nam fuit ante Helenam cunnus taeterrima bellī
causa, sed ignōtis periērunt mortibus illī,
quōs vēnerem incertam rapientis mōre ferārum
viribus 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.
-
- (vulgar) cunt, cunny (obscene word for the vulva)
- (vulgar) female genitalia, pubic hair
Declension
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
- Asturian: coñu
- Catalan: cony
- Dalmatian: con
- Galician: cona
- French: con
- Italian: conno
- Neapolitan: cunnu
- Occitan: con
- Portuguese: cona
- Sicilian: cunnu
- Spanish: coño
- → Dutch: conjo
- → Czech: kunda
- → Slovak: kunda
- → Hungarian: cuni, cunci
- → Welsh: cont
See also
- cūlus (“anus, arse”)
- cūnae (“cradle, nest for young birds”)
- cuneus (“wedge”)
- cunīculus (“rabbit”)
- cunnilingus (“cuntlicker”)
References
- “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