eggcorn: "profound" (profane) words

[James Harbeck]

I'm put in mind of an exchange between me and a friend, sometime around 1986:

He: "James, you're a prick."
Me: "Yeah? Well, you're a cunt."
He: "Well, _fuck me_!"

Certainly in the early and mid 1980s in Alberta, girls considered
"cunt" the most offensive word possible, which corroborates otehr
evidence here presented. Guys were somewhat less put off by it,
although we were always aware of its great power to offend women.
"Prick" was and is, in the usage I'm familiar with, an only barely
vulgar term to refer to a guy who is deliberately mean. "Cunt"
referring to a guy doesn't have feminine overtones for me; it means
he's like a prick but worse because either smarter, stupider, more
powerful, or what have you. "Cunt" to refer to a woman would be like
"bitch" but with a good deal more control and deliberateness. But
these are merely the senses that I've always understood for them;
YRMV.

I'd be interested if anyone knows of any research on the
phonaesthetics of "cunt".

James Harbeck.

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