# The cu\*t word **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 7, 2025, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cu-t-word/1016729 "2025-04-07T08:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cu-t-word/1016729/141 "2025-04-10T10:26:17Z")
‘Knickers’ in the UK are women’s underwear in most prevailing contexts. Getting your ‘knickers in a twist’ is, I believe directly equivalent to the US ‘panties in a bunch’ - and it does have a somewhat gendered angle; that is: - If you talk about a woman getting her knickers in a twist, there is a suggestion of female hysteria. - If you use the same term about a man, there is a suggestion that he’s behaving like a hysterical woman (or, indirectly, that he’s wearing women’s underwear, which is not ‘manly’). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cu-t-word/1016729/142 "2025-04-10T10:32:16Z")
> [@SpicyDuckBillyHunt](#): > > I live in Melbourne Australia. Cunt is pretty commonly used - just not safe for office jobs or Legacy news media. Mostly used in place of ‘mate’ in a friendly way. I just want to address the UK side of this, since in this thread there seems to be a tendency to equate it exactly to the state of play in Australia. It’s not the same in the UK, as far as I can tell. There are UK subcultures (mostly young, male, blue collar I think) where it’s probably directly equivalent to AU usage. but I believe this is a much smaller subset of the whole culture and so the word is, in general, rather more likely to be found offensive here in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cu-t-word/1016729/143 "2025-04-10T11:16:12Z")
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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2025, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cu-t-word/1016729/144 "2025-04-10T11:18:10Z")
This thread has drifted into a discussion of words rather than a discussion of rules and moderation. Those who wish to continue the word discussion, feel free to do so in a more appropriate forum. This is closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cu-t-word/1016729.md?page=7)