• cunnu(Pompeii)

Uncertain. Various theories include:

• Proto-Indo-European*kutnos(“cover”),^[1][2] cognate withcutis(“skin”). The metaphor is identical to the one connectingLatinvulva andEnglishhull, albeit from a different Indo-European root.
• A relationship toLatincuneus(“wedge”).
• FromProto-Indo-European*(s)ker-(“to cut”), evolved from an original sense of “gash”, “slit”.

• (Classical Latin)IPA^(key): /ˈkun.nus/,[ˈkʊnːʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical)IPA^(key): /ˈkun.nus/,[ˈkunːus]

cunnus m (genitivecunnī);second declension

1. (usually vulgar)vulva,vagina(thefemalegenitalia including theirexternal as well asinternal parts)
2. (vulgar, derogatory, synecdochically) awoman seen as merelyprovidingaccess to sex(also used ofhomosexual men)
   • 40/41CE, Horatius,Sermones, I, 3, 107:

     nam fuit ante Helenamcunnus taeterrima bellī
     causa, sed ignōtīs periērunt mortibus illī,
     quōs venerem incertam rapientīs mōre ferārum
     vīribus ēditior caedēbat ut in grege taurus.

     So, the most awful cause of war—since even before Helen—
     Waspussy; but then other men to unsung deaths have fallen,
     Who by some stronger rival, like a raging bull, were struck
     Down in the act of squeezing in a chancy beast-style fuck.

This was the only Latin word properly referring to the female genitalia, and the degree of itsobscenity was context-dependent.^[3] For example, in the curse tablet Audollent 135B,^[4] addressed to a deity, the word is used in a list of names for body parts to be affected. Its appearance in literature also suggests it was not as rude or strongly tabooed as its English look-alike,cunt. The word occurs mainly ingraffiti andepigram, most occurrences in the latter being byMartial.

Second-declension noun.

• cūlus(“anus,arse”)
• cūnae(“cradle,nest for young birds”)
• cuneus(“wedge”)
• cunīculus(“rabbit”)
• cunnilingus(“cuntlicker”)

• “cunnus” on page 518 of theOxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)

• “cunnus”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cunnus”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

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