the new taboo

[Dave Wilton]

> Which '72? 1572? Have you all forgotten Malvolio's "letter"? I
> thought this was about "new" taboos.

The particular point was the use of the word as term a abuse directed at a
person, and in the case of the Monty Python skit more specifically used in
reference to a man, as opposed to a woman. The use of the word as a term of
abuse is first cited in the OED2 in 1929.

Looking closer at the OED2, however, there is a 1932 cite of Orwell calling
a man a "cunt." So that specific usage isn't all that new. This squares with
what I said in the last post, that the fact the word was added to the 1982
live version of the Monty Python skit probably has more to do with BBC
censorship than the fact that the word wasn't used in this specific sense
when first performed on TV in 1972.