# How did these "names" get started? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2000, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-these-names-get-started/26496 "2000-07-22T23:15:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cheezit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@cheezit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheezit)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-these-names-get-started/26496/1 "2000-07-22T23:15:31Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-these-names-get-started/26496/2 "2000-07-22T23:51:56Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2000, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-these-names-get-started/26496/3 "2000-07-22T23:56:36Z")
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_. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-these-names-get-started/26496/4 "2000-07-23T02:21:21Z")
Danke schoen, Kat. Now how about the male words? ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-these-names-get-started/26496/5 "2000-07-23T02:28:49Z")
“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”. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-these-names-get-started/26496/6 "2000-07-23T03:18:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-these-names-get-started/26496/7 "2000-07-23T03:30:08Z")
> [@](#): > > No entry for dick, sorry. LOL. Man, I hate when chicks tell me that. Kat, couldnt you let me down a little nicer? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2000, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-these-names-get-started/26496/8 "2000-07-23T03:46:18Z")
LMAO. Well, Bear, perhaps the fact that so many chicks tell you that means something. 😉 I’m so glad I wasn’t drinking anything.