The C Word

I really don’t enjoy it but Christmas isn’t that bad GagaJo.

Abhor it! Used too frequently IMHO!

I never thought I was naive but I thought OP was referring to Christmas!!

I agree - it's not necessary to use this use word and it's often delivered with such venom by people who are supposed to be clever. It's not big or clever is it?

As it seems to be usually used as an insult its unnecessary and offensive on all counts.

Me too Alima and Wadenan !

PS I abhor the term “lady garden” eurgh - vulva, vagina, whatever, but why be mimsy about it?

Christmas should start on the 23rd of December and end promptly on the 26th December.

It is a hateful spend fest.

PS I abhor the term “lady garden” eurgh - vulva, vagina, whatever, but why be mimsy about it?

Fair enough. I usually use anatomical terms too, but a lot of Gransnet users are easily offended (hence the Christmas references)
so I was trying (for once!) to avoid causing offense.

Our eldest daughter used it in front of me once when she was saying what she thought of the divisive Katie Hopkins....
?

It is an old word for female genitalia (a compromise between lady garden and vulva - I like to please! ) and it is hard to understand why that should be an insult, as it is just an integral part of at least 50% of the population. But....we (well not me of course!) do call people a dick, prick, dickhead etc., so it seems that genitals in general are to be regarded as insulting. How very weird? How did that come about?

I always thins it's odd to refer to a man as a c***!

I can't bear the word, not especially worried about the 'f word' and can swear like a trouper (in private only) when the need arises but would never, ever, ever use the 'c word'

As well as never using the f word, I would also never use the c word. It’s not a word that was used much years ago, well, not in my hearing anyway.

This ? PS I abhor the term “lady garden” eurgh - vulva, vagina, whatever, but why be mimsy about it?

I can swear like a docker's mate but c**t is too ugly a word even for me to use. And I judge those who do use it.

What nanaK said

It's strange as I swear (mostly in my head or under my breath) quite a lot but that is the one word I never use and it still shocks me to hear it said on TV or in films - it was quite often used by The Hound in GOT and always gave me a start to hear it. Maybe it was my mother saying to me years ago she hated that word - although she would also never have used anything other than bloody

I was once told that it was equivalent to call someone a burk Apparently it's cockney rhyming slang .
Berkshire Hunt.

Just though I would mention it.

The F word was totally forbidden and taboo when I was a child, unlike today. Maybe the C word will also evolve the same way.

I’m with nanaK and others on this one - I know all the swear words but would never use the C word or indeed the T word. In fact I’m known for correcting people who use it, saying ‘Its pronounced TWIT actually!’

The C word s the only swear word that is banned in this house. I loathe it and I’m with MawB on calling our vaginal area a lady garden, use the right terms or if feeling faint, refer to nether regions.
I’ve only ever heard C used aggressively and in a way that is intended to cause offence to women. That’s much less noticeable with eg dickhead

It was a word that once upon a time you'd never hear, now it seems, once the "f" has reduced in the level of shock it once had, the c word has stepped in to replace it. It's certainly not uncommon to see it over on MN, some like to describe people they don't like in that way as a sort of a challenge, I detect nevertheless a desire to shock lurks there, that's my perception.

Having said that I can't stand euphemisms, I'm with the rest of you on "lady garden". I worked with an older woman quite a few years ago who had a really annoying expression which went something like this "I tell my girls to keep their hands over their penny with boyfriends". I knew exactly what she meant but I found the expression so nauseating I felt compelled to feign ignorance and asked her to explain exactly what she meant. Why do people have dress their misplaced embarrassment up with baby like nonsense talk.

I went to see the Vagina Monologues some years ago and it very wittily uses all these words and attempts to trace the origins of the but also uses anecdotes and funny stories. I saw Marlene from Only Fools etc etc in it.

When used (locally) in a heavy Scouse accent it sounds aggressive - the emphasis on the hard C and "un" sound. When said by in an Eastend, Australian or Irish accent it sounds totally different.

I loathe the ‘c’ word and have only ever heard it used as a derogatory term.

* Terribull* 'Keep your hand on your ha'penny', was the advice given to my Grandma, by her Mum, when she was 'courting' back in the 1920's, I think lots of euphemisms were used then weren't they? I think it was also the lyric to a music hall song of the same era. I now wished that I'd written down all the little snippets of life she told me about when I was a teenager- but I was too preoccupied with other things at the time- mainly boys which could explain why she told me about the saying!