We had a fella a work yesterday just go ballistic when someone called him kunt. It wasnt used as an insult rather, "hey you cant leave that pallet there ya kunt". He jumped of the forklift and threatened to smash this little guys face into the pavement for calling him that.

Thing is the guy that got offended swore like a sailor???

Indeed.

One thing that has always held true to me (up here in NQ anyway) is that you call your mates kunt, and kunts mate :lol:

Something that I think is very Australian.

-PB

It's a cultural change. Explored this as part of a unit I did last year.

Basically 19th century insults were directed at someone's honour. 20th century taboo words were swear words and now we've entered a new cultural phase where deragotory words for minorities or people differ to ourselves are taboo.
This phase will pass just when society inevitably swings back more conservatively.

I've always wondered how we managed to get where we are in regards to certain linguistics and how words like kunt for instance have become such a big no no in the list of swear/curse words.

You can even see just over the last 10 years how the word fuck has become more of an accepted word now, even to the point where it appears a lot more often on your standard nightime/primetime programming on TV.

Things like shit, piss, arse are pretty much common words for everyday conversation (in Australia perhaps?) whereas when I was a kid, these things were taboo.

Calling someone a shithead was the be all and end all, now days you can call someone a fuckwit, dumbkunt, dickhead and its pretty much water off a ducks back.

Maybe it's more a cultural change then a linguistic one?

Or maybe people do get offended at such terms and I've just read so many situations incredibly wrong haha #rednecktown

-PB

Well the link doesn't even work because reasons :lol:

Most sources consider the word to have derived from a Germanic word, which appeared as 'kunta' in Old Norse.