Women’s body parts have long been appropriated for the purpose of cursing, so it’s only right that we reclaim them with profane gusto
One era’s foul-mouthed insult is another’s evocatively named topological feature, which is why, if you find yourself driving past a clefted hill in rural Lincolnshire, you might be delighted to know that it was once referred to as “Cuntewellewang”, not that far from “Scamcunt Grene”.
I gleaned these and many other utterly diverting facts from Jenni Nuttall’s Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women’s Words, in which she minutely details the shifts of language and meaning over the centuries through the lens of women’s experiences.
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