Horny Cunts
Horny Cunts
Latin profanity is the profane, indecent, or impolite vocabulary of Latin, and its uses. The profane vocabulary of early Vulgar Latin consisted largely of sexual and scatological latin: the rich lodes of religious profanity found in some of the Romance languages is a Christian development, and as such does not appear in Classical Latin. In Vulgar Latin, words that were considered to be profanity were described generally as obsc(a)ena , "obscene, lewd", unfit for public use; or improba , "improper, in poor taste, undignified". (Note that the name "Vulgar Latin" simply referred to the common speech, not necessarily profanity, although Vulgar Latin was the form of Latin in which sexual and scatological expletives existed. In the more formal Classical Latin, no profanity is recorded except in satirical works, or in discussion of the actual words.)
Since profanity, by definition, consists of spoken words that people use very informally, it is worthwhile to note the sources of Latin profanity. Knowledge of Latin profanity and obscenities comes from a number of sources:
- The satirical poets, particularly Catullus and Martial, use the words in preserved literary works. Horace also used them in his earlier poems. The anonymous Priapeia is another important literary source.
- The orator and lawyer Cicero's Epistulae ad Familiares ("Letters to My Friends") discuss Latin profanity, and confirm the "profane" or "obscene" status of many of the words.
- A number of medical or especially veterinary texts use the words as part of their working vocabulary, in which they were not considered obscenity but simply jargon.
- Preserved graffiti from the Roman period use these words. A rich trove of examples of profane Latin at work was discovered on the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Mentula and verpa : the penis
Mentula is the basic Latin word for penis. Its status as a basic obscenity is confirmed by the Priapeia 28, in which mentula and cunnus are given as ideal examples of obscene words:
Verpa is also a basic Latin obscenity for "penis". It appears less frequently in Classical Latin, but it does appear in Catullus 47:
Verpus , adjective and noun, referred to a man whose glans was exposed, either by an erection or by circumcision; thus Juvenal has
Etymology
The exact etymology of mentula is somewhat obscure, although outwardly it would appear to be a diminutive of mēns , (gen. mentis , the "mind" (ie; "the little mind"). Mentum is the chin. Cicero's letter 9:22 ad Familiares relates it to menta , a spearmint stalk. Tucker's Etymological Dictionary of Latin relates it to ēminēre , "to project outwards", and mōns , "a mountain", all of which suggest an Indo-European * men- .
Verpa probably relates to something "thrust" or "thrown"; compare Dutch werpen , Danish verfe , Icelandic verpa , and Old English weorpan (the root of English warp), all meaning "to throw".
Usage
Mentula frequently appears in the poetry of Catullus. Catullus uses Mentula as a nickname for Mamurra, and uses it as an ordinary name, as in his epigram 105:
Synonyms and metaphors
The Latin word pēnis itself originally meant "tail". Cicero's ad Familiares , 9.22, observes that pēnis originally was an innocuous word, but that the meaning of male sexual organ had become primary by his day. Once it acquired its sexual sense, this sense tarred the word and made it unusable for anything other than the sexual sense; thus pēnis became the standard medical and scientific jargon word.
The obscure word sōpiō (gen. sōpiōnis ) seemed to mean a sexualized caricature with an abnormally large penis, such as the Romans were known to draw. It appears in Catullus 37: frontem tabernae sopionibus scribam ("I will draw sopios on the front of the tavern") and in graffiti from Pompeii: ut merdas edatis, qui scripseras sopionis ("whoever drew sopios, let him eat shit!'") The grammarian Sacerdos preserves a quotation about Pompey, that says quem non pudet et rubet, non est homo, sed sopio ("whoever is not ashamed and blushes is not a man, but a sopio .") Sōpiō would appear to describe drawings such as that of the god Mercury in the illustration.
The word pipinna seems to have been children's slang for the penis; compare English pee-pee . It appears in Martial 11.71:
The verb arrigō , arrigere meant "to have an erection". Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars , Augustus 69, contains the line:
In the Romance languages
Mentula has evolved into Sicilian minchia and South Sardinian minca . Minga also exists in Spanish. Verpa is preserved in some Romance dialects, usually with another meaning; verpile is a sort of stirrup and spur in a Calabrian dialect, possibly named for its shape. Most Romance languages have adopted metaphorical euphemisms as the chief words for the penis; as in Mexican Spanish and Argentine Spanish verga , obscene for penis, and in Romanian vargă (although pulă is far more common), Catalan, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese verga , French verge , from Latin virga , "staff".
Cōleī : the testicles
The basic word for the testicles in Latin was cōleī (singular: cōleus ). It had an alternative, consonant-stem form cōleōnēs (singular: cōleō ), in later Latin sometimes culiō, culiōnēs , that is sparsely attested in Classical Latin; this, however, is the productive word in Romance.
Etymology
The etymology of cōleī is obscure. Tucker, without explanation, gives * qogh-sleǐ-os (* k w og h -sley-os? ), and relates it to cohum , an obscure word for "yoke".
Usage
Cōleī does not appear to have been offensive to the degree that words like mentula or futuō were. Cicero's letters refer to the honesti colei Lanuvini ; the chaste Lanuvinian testicles, which may have been a foodstuff, or perhaps wine in a wineskin; his description of them as honesti indicates that the word was acceptable in "decent" company.
On the other hand, a Pompeian graffito quotes what may have been a folk saying: seni supino colei culum tegunt : "when an old man lies down, his balls cover his butthole." This may have been a proverb, and constitutes ribald humour; it does not demonstrate that the word was considered particularly obscene.
Synonyms and metaphors
The primary decent word in Latin for cōleī was testēs (sing. testis ). This word may have derived (although the etymology is uncertain) from the plain Latin for "witnesses" (as in English attest , testify , testament and testimony ); a man swore an oath upon what he held dearest; or, his testicles were witnesses to his virility. Cicero's letter again says "testes" verbum honestissimum in iudicio, alio loco non nimis. ("In a court of law, witnesses is a quite decent word; not so elsewhere.") The diminutive testiculī was entirely confined to the anatomical sense, and supplied the English word testicles and testicular , as well as its Romance equivalents.
In the Romance languages
Cōleōnēs is productive in most of the Romance languages: cf. Italian coglioni , French couilles , couillons ; Portuguese colhões , Galician collóns , collois , collós , Catalan collons , Sardinian cozzones , Romanian coi , coaie , Spanish cojones (now a loanword in English).
Cunnus : the vulva
Cunnus was the basic Latin word for the vulva. The Priapeia mention it in connection with mentula , above.
Etymology
Cunnus has a distinguished Indo-European lineage. It is cognate with Persian kun "anus" and kos "vulva", and with Greek κύσθος ( kusthos ). Tucker relates it to Indo-European *kut-nos , which suggests a word meaning "split" (cf. English crack ). The Indo-European origin of this word is supported by the fact that it appears in the Slavic languages, as in the Czech kunda also Persian gosha "splitting" and kos "vulva".
Eric Partridge's Origins , by contrast, relates it to a reconstructed IE * kuzdhos , and also calls attention to the Hittite kun , "tail", and suggests cognates among the Afro-Asiatic languages.
The similarity with English cunt is most likely coincidental.
Usage
Cicero's letters confirm once again its obscene status. Cicero writes:
The word cunnilingus also occurs in literary Latin, and is found once in Catullus and more frequently in Martial; it denotes the person who performs th
