Sensitivity Disclaimer

Sensitivity Disclaimer

Please accept this disclaimer made in good spirit. The database contains idioms, words and expressions that could be considered vulgar or offensive in varying degrees. The so-called f and c words are prime examples. If you find such words or language distressing or inappropriate, please ignore, but kindly tolerate their presence in the database. For the same reason, please supervise and apply appropriate restrictions for juveniles and children who may wish to use the website.

From at least the 13th century, and for most of the Middle Ages, the c word, describing the female pudenda, was perfectly acceptable. Chaucer used the word freely and without censure in Canterbury Tales (circa 1390). The f word only came later, in 1503, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. During the 16th and 17th centuries, despite their continued use in speech, both the f and c words became taboo. From the late 18th century onwards, their use was banned in print and was liable to prosecution in most English-speaking countries. In the 20th century, James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928), were both banned in the UK, the USA, and elsewhere, for containing the f and c words.

In a famous landmark case, the unexpurgated Penguin edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover, published in 1960, was prosecuted under the UK Obscenity Publications Act, but a verdict of not guilty was returned by jury in 1961. Thereafter, both the f and c words began to appear freely in print, and were first heard in mainstream cinema from the early 1970s onwards. Along with other words considered inappropriate, the f and c words are generally ‘bleeped’ out, however, in non-discriminate, broadcast media, like TV and radio. The Oxford English Dictionary included definitions and origins of the f and c words for the first time in 1972.