I heard the phrase cunny-thumbed (To double one’s fist with the thumb inwards, like a woman. Also, clumsy.) today, for the first-time in ages, and it reminded me of a random thing I once knew.

The humble rabbit was once commonly known as cony, coney (yes, as in Island Baby) or cunny. This comes from the term for the genus, Oryctolagus cuniculus (or domesticated rabbit).

Unfortunately, in the nineteenth century, cunny became a slang term for a part of the female anatomy (no prizes for guessing which [meaningful look]) and the term (as applied to little furry bouncing things with twitching noses) fell out of usage.

I vaguely remember an anthopology lecturer of mine detailing a hypothesis that all taboo/slang terms grew out of the names for domesticated animals - something to do with the sound cu- (as in, yes, you know, slang term for ladies downstairs department [meaningful glance]) being also the origin for the word cow.) This is somehow related, but I can’t find any mention of it online (so it mustn’t be true.)

(Kidding.)

(Mind you, having said that, do you ever find yourself thinking, when you can’t find any trace of a person/place/thing/service which you know to exist, even after exhaustive googlsearching, that they can’t really be trying, or mustn’t be that important/neccessary etc? It’s terrible websnobbery, I know.)

There’s an interesting history of the word for, you know, downstairs [meaningful look] at the following link, but I must press upon you in no uncertain terms that the link is not safe for work and that you should very much try and avoid clicking on any of the links contained within it, or going to the root of the site because the rest of the site is not a similar semi-academic exploration of the term and probably more accurately and, *ahem* exploration of the *ahem* term. If you see what I’m saying. Anyway, the link is… no, wait, I can’t write it because then my site will get blacklisted from various touchy establishments and…*sigh* OK, well, if you really want to visit the page I’m talking about then go to your address bar and type in www then a dot, then the four letter slang term for, you know, downstairs [meaningful look], then another dot, then com, then a slash, then the downstairs [meaningful look] word again then another dot, then html. Got that? Good.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. this site. Much better, and original, to boot.

Other words and phrases I have recently enjoyed: sticker shock (you see the thing, you want the thing, you decide to buy the thing and then you see the price sticker. You go a bit white, your eyes boggle, you put it down and you walk away. Happens with houses, cars, albums, clothes, both online and offline, and it’s one of the biggest things retailers have to combat. In a weird way, it’s the main reason that things are priced at £999.99 rather than £1,000), bilk (is this why Sgt. Bilco is so named, I wonder?)