How did these "names" get started?

[cheezit]

When and how did such wonderfull “names” get started for human genitals? Like: pussy, cunt, twat. Cock, dick, prick.
They are used so often and in a sense the names seem so degrading. Just wondering. Have I led an exceptionally sheltered life?

[matt_mcl]

Let’s see what I can get from the dictionary:

Pussy: Analogy to something small, furry, and fun to be around. Note that the French word “chatte” is a translation of both senses ("[female] cat" and “vagina”).

Cunt: A very old word indeed, so old that it can be found both in old Germanic and in Romance languages (compare “cunnilingus”, French con, Spanish coño).

Twat: Origin unknown, but dates to the 17th century.

Cock: Connection to male roosters fairly obvious; the non-slang word “cock” is from French coq, probably from mediaeval Latin coccus.

Dick: from pet name of “Richard” (compare “Johnson”, “Percy”, “John Thomas”).

Prick: Derivation obvious; first slang use uncertain date.

[Kat]

Wow, I wasn’t really expecting to find anything, but they’ve got “fuck” in there so why not?

cunt [13] The first know reference to the word cunt is in an early medieval Oxford streer-name:Gropecuntlane (it was afterwards renamed Magpie lane). This was around 1230, and from later in the same century there are records of a street of the same name (presumably the haunt of prostitutes) in London, probably around the area of modern Cheapside, York, too, had its Grapcunt lane in the 15th century. Cunt has a number of German cognates, including Old Norse kunta, Middle Dutch kunte, and possibly Middle High German kotze ‘prostitute,’ which point to a prehistoric Germanic ancestor *kunton ‘female genitals,’ but beyond that its origins are not known. A link has been suggested with Latin cuneus ‘wedge.’

puss…pussy the slang term for ‘cunt’ [19] may be of Low German or Scandinavian origin (Low German had puse ‘vulva’ and Old Norse puss ‘pocket, pouch’).

twit…an alternative theory is that it is an alteration of twas [17]. This originally meant ‘cunt,’ and is not recorded as a term of abuse until the 1920s. It is not know where it came from.

All from Dictionary of Word Origins.

[matt_mcl]

Danke schoen, Kat. Now how about the male words?

[Coldfire]

“Poes” or “Poesje” (‘poos’ and ‘poos-yu’, pronounced) both mean cat and cunt in Dutch.

Matt, don’t “con” and “cono” (can’t do the li’l snake thinie) refer to something like “asshole”, in the figurative sense? I don’t think they literaly mean “cunt”.

[Kat]

Very well.

cock [OE]…The origin of the interconnected set of senses ‘spout, tap,’ ‘hammer of a firearm,’ and ‘penis’ is not known; it is possible that it represents an entirely different word, but the fact that the German hahn ‘hen’ has the same meanings suggests otherwise.

prick [OE] Prick is a word of the Low German area, which English shares with Dutch (prik). Its ultimate origins, though, are not known. The earliest record of its use for ‘penis’ is from the late 16th century and in the 16th and 17th centuries women employed it as a term of endearment - a usage which did not go down well in all quarters

No entry for dick, sorry.

[Bear_Nenno]

No entry for dick, sorry.

LOL. Man, I hate when chicks tell me that. Kat, couldnt you let me down a little nicer?

[Kat]

LMAO.

Well, Bear, perhaps the fact that so many chicks tell you that means something.

I’m so glad I wasn’t drinking anything.