Did You See My Little Pussy (of course a cat)
Theme song (1919) of the naughty Barrison Sisters
(From the pages of C.B. Pyle's Analogue of Words)
by Norman A. Rubin

The English-speaking peoples have long had a special strong fear of words of the sexual organs and their functioning. Therefore these good people resort to euphemisms and have taken care to substitute pleasing and fashionable words instead of the so-called obsolete and gross terms expressed in the English language. In short, when a person calls a word obscene, indecent or dirty it is an indication of his or her mind. Yet the mention of the certain word like ‘cunt’ chills the blood and raises gooseflesh.

” ...her thighs, though heavy and firm, had the resilience of cushions filled with ostrich down. Between these thighs there lay in its warm nest, the garden of delight." Throughout the pages of the Book of the 'Thousand Nights and One Night' the mention of the female gender, the vagina, was mentioned in poetic terms. Yet, throughout the following years the mention of this word by other civilizations was one of derogation, and forbidden in thought.

The Ancient Hebrews begatted but never mentioned the name of the word where 'Aaron's rod' found the gratification and pleasure in 'Lord knows what, what-do-you-call-it'. The Greeks of Old paraded around in their altogether during religious ceremonies; yet with all the virginal mons pubis in delightful show and readiness many of the gentlemen of Athens and Sparta preferred the bung-hole of nubile boys for their 'prica' - only entering the Venus’s font of female temple acolytes during religious ceremony. It was the naughty Romans, who enjoyed the flowery passage during Bacchanalia orgies, that gave us the word 'cunnus', changing into that venerable word 'cunt' - the ancient, yet modern word, that maintained an underground life since the advent of the new faith.

But ‘cunt’ is not an underworld term; it is not slang, nor is it cant. The word is definitely a language word belonging to a class of vulgarisms. ‘Cunt’ has served in the English language to connote, not merely the female sexual organ, but also the sexual pleasure by woman in man. Due to its sexually energizing meaning the word ‘cunt’ has been avoided in written and spoken English since the fifteenth century. Most lexicographers fought shy of it; Noah Webster, the famous scholar bowdlerized the Bible by substituting words referring to the female gender and the sexual act with polite terms: ‘womb’ with ‘carnal connection’, ‘fornication’ with ‘lewdness’, ‘to go a-whoring’ with ‘to go astray’, etc.

And in the 60’s of this modern era the word was held to be obscene and it was a legal offense to print it. But that was in the past and the word ’cunt’, and other references in either slang or in more gentler terms to the female organ can be found everywhere from the written word of literature to the spoken word on the television screen,

“The portions of a woman that appeals to man’s depravity
Are constructed with considerable care
And what appears to be a simple cavity
Is in fact a most elaborate affair.”

Several other words for the female sex organ may claim to be correct and proper English such as ‘tail’, ‘hole’, ‘twat’ and ‘quim’. Amoungst the gentry and the upper classes in the days of olde there were cultural euphemisms of the organ, such as ‘fleshy part’, love flesh’, ‘private property’, etc.. During the nineteenth century cultured euphemisms included ‘Mother of Saint Patrick’ (Anglo-Irish), ‘dearest bodily part’, ‘treasury of love’, etc…

During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, there were mildly amusing names given to the feminine gender – ‘holy of holies’, ‘rest and be thankful’, ‘love’s paradise' and 'love’s garden of delight,' ‘what’s-its-name’, etc.. The tome ‘The Slang of Venery’ lists over one thousand popular and literary English synonyms for the pudenda as a whole.

Today we have modern terms that refer to the physical structure of the female sexual organ; ‘crack’, dove’s nest, ‘pocket and pouch’, hole of holes’, etc.. Next comes a group likening the female organ of food of various kinds: ‘a bit of meat’, ‘cookie’, ‘yum yum’, etc. The vegetable and animal kingdom have a varied listing that refers to the female gender: ‘Garden of Eden’, green meadow, etc.. The cat family provides or us with a few euphemisms such as ‘puss purse’ or the commonest expression: ‘pussy’.

"There's the vulva, the vagina, and the jolly perineum,
And the hymen, in case of many brides,
If you could see em',
The clitoris, and other things besides.”

And there is the alleged virginal membrane, known as the maidenhead (ancient Greek) since the 13th century. In the seventeenth to the eighteenth century it was politely referred to as the ‘rose’. In this day and age it is generally called the 'hymen' or in popular American slang 'cherry'. Polite terms in use today are ‘bauble’, ‘darling treasure’, flower’, ‘precious trinket’, ‘perishable commodity’, etc…

And perhaps the commonest present-day term for the pubic hair is ‘bush’, even though in the past it was known as ‘silken thatch’, ‘quim bush’, ‘mossy mounts’, etc..

“Physicians of distinction have examined these phenomena
In numerous experimental dames;
They have tabulate carefully the feminine abdomina,
And given them some fascinating names.”

Call the 'cunnus' in any term you wish – bauble, bower of bliss, garden of delight, treasury of love, tender parts and in the slang of the day: crack, twat, tail, and etc., etc.. 'Cunt' or “Cunnus’ are excellent words which has served our ancestors for hundreds of years and should be used ‘unemotionally’ in its simple literal sense.

Norman A. Rubin of Afula, Israel is a former correspondent for the Continental News Service, USA. He's written on Near East culture and crafts, archaeology, history and politics; religious history and rites, etc. He's been featured in publications world wide - Jerusalem Post, Israel - Coin News, Minerva, Oriental Arts, etc. England - Ararat, Letter Arts Review, Archaeology, etc. USA - Spotlight, Japan - International B, Hong Kong. He's been a freelance writer for the past sixteen years of short stories of all genres - mystery, horror, humour, sexual customs, etc.