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An honest history of an ancient and “nasty” word | Kate Lister

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. With candor and cunning, sex historian Kate Lister chronicles the curious journey of an ancient, honest word with innocent origins and a now-scandalous connotation in this uproarious love letter to etymology, queens, cows and all things “c***.” (This talk…

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Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

With candor and cunning, sex historian Kate Lister chronicles the curious journey of an ancient, honest word with innocent origins and a now-scandalous connotation in this uproarious love letter to etymology, queens, cows and all things “c***.” (This talk contains mature language.)

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know.

TED’s videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at

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51 Comments

51 Comments

  1. Michelle Peacock

    April 23, 2021 at 3:46 pm

    Words are arbitrary. Maybe someday we’ll realize they only have the meaning and power we give them.

    • Laroac

      April 23, 2021 at 4:22 pm

      You have a sub consciousness that doesn’t care about what you think you know or should do.

    • Devil Hunter Radio

      April 23, 2021 at 11:52 pm

      @Laroac Your point is?

  2. Rick Drew

    April 23, 2021 at 3:50 pm

    It takes a cunning linguist to explore a word to this extent.

  3. hamcakes1990

    April 23, 2021 at 3:52 pm

    Excellent.

  4. Sandra Nosocialism

    April 23, 2021 at 3:54 pm

    It’s just a word. Never be offended by a word. B**** used to bother me. Now it means nothing to me. People take these things too seriously

  5. Travis Guy

    April 23, 2021 at 3:57 pm

    Stop giving words power….when you allow words to bother you all that means you are weak minded. Words will only effect you if you let them.

  6. thechariotcard

    April 23, 2021 at 3:58 pm

    We surely are saying it’s that offensive! It’s of a woman. And men use it in the same way white racists use the “N” word.

    • Travis Guy

      April 23, 2021 at 4:03 pm

      So entire nations use this word for other reasons….words only have power if you allow them. Being offended is just an emotional response…doesnt mean you are right.

  7. jo Undeadcookiemonster

    April 23, 2021 at 3:58 pm

    Colonel Ingus says see you next Tuesday

  8. emily_brandy

    April 23, 2021 at 4:34 pm

    Thanks for the new perspective

  9. Allison Hunter

    April 23, 2021 at 4:52 pm

    In many parts of the world “psychics” are people who are told they possess the Cunning, like “The Shining”.

  10. William Miller

    April 23, 2021 at 5:01 pm

    Ted talks censored lol way to be …

  11. Dantick09

    April 23, 2021 at 6:32 pm

    SAY IT

  12. BJERKASS

    April 23, 2021 at 7:16 pm

    Best word ever

  13. Niranjan Hanasoge

    April 23, 2021 at 7:45 pm

    The cultural norms and offense thresholds of UK and USA appear illogical to non-native English speakers like me. Kate says the N-word is more offensive than the C-word. Which wouldn’t be obvious at all to anyone exposed to Western pop culture. *George Carlin* mentions the C-word in his famous _Seven Dirty Words_ monologue. So you know you have to be careful with those. But he doesn’t mention the N-word. In fact, you hear the N-word all the time in rap / hip-hop, movies, and TV shows. You even practice saying “Homies,” “Ma Ni***,” and “Wassup, bit****” with your friends. What’s one to do?!!!

  14. Loren Holmes

    April 23, 2021 at 8:27 pm

    Brilliant!

  15. qwaqwa1960

    April 23, 2021 at 8:40 pm

    Cunning linguists…

  16. Mounir Aberbach

    April 23, 2021 at 8:42 pm

    Interesting, good job

  17. qwaqwa1960

    April 23, 2021 at 8:53 pm

    “Cunny juice”, from Gangs of New York…

  18. StSebbe

    April 23, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    Kont is butt not kut

  19. Caylin Choquette

    April 23, 2021 at 11:05 pm

    So interesting!!!

  20. Stefan Nikola

    April 23, 2021 at 11:20 pm

    I’ve never used this word in the Scottish sense.

  21. krazytaxicabbie

    April 24, 2021 at 12:28 am

    Ha ha ha. Words = violence today.

  22. C drum

    April 24, 2021 at 12:41 am

    Waiting for her to sing “Girls just want to have fun”

  23. dragonlover3

    April 24, 2021 at 1:36 am

    Nice

  24. SK

    April 24, 2021 at 2:30 am

    Wtf lol

  25. Lisa Love Ministries

    April 24, 2021 at 3:38 am

    Proverbs 8:17💝

  26. Ed Hamacek

    April 24, 2021 at 6:03 am

    I recently saw a post which referred to an Australian prominent politician as c**t to which someone replied “he lacks the warmth and depth to earn that title”.

  27. Jennifer M

    April 24, 2021 at 6:03 am

    Best talk I’ve heard in a while. Thanks.

  28. mac macd

    April 24, 2021 at 8:42 am

    I thought it was a little British fat fighters sketch😂😂😂

  29. Jennifer Harrison

    April 24, 2021 at 8:51 am

    I think we hate the word because of the derogatory connection we make with it…it gave me something to think about though thank you

  30. Loshkar Ъ

    April 24, 2021 at 9:09 am

    Thats what education looks like nowadays, huh…

  31. RemusKingOfRome5

    April 24, 2021 at 10:48 am

    JUST like the word – “R*PE” !!! which feminists use all the time to keep power…

  32. oyvey

    April 24, 2021 at 10:53 am

    The speaker is a massive….

  33. oyvey

    April 24, 2021 at 10:53 am

    In australia we call our mates c#%t, and we call c#/ts mate.

  34. Francesco Di Mauro

    April 24, 2021 at 1:02 pm

    Last straw, I’m unsubscribing, after at least ten years, let me know if they will ever publish a remotely interesting video about human achivements again. Ideas worth spreading…

  35. Yash Pal Goyal

    April 24, 2021 at 1:58 pm

    the word or world??

  36. Broc Stefan

    April 24, 2021 at 2:11 pm

    Why is this on Ted and not Tedx?

    This is nonsense.

  37. Jess Foday

    April 24, 2021 at 4:39 pm

    love love love love this

  38. Мировая закулиса

    April 24, 2021 at 5:18 pm

    (Y)

  39. Ashlyn Eagle

    April 24, 2021 at 6:03 pm

    I love “swears”.

  40. Gigglemania Runnin’ Wild

    April 24, 2021 at 6:51 pm

    The crowd didn’t laugh at many of her attempts, tough crowd, bless her

  41. Ellie

    April 24, 2021 at 7:30 pm

    Awesome x

  42. Justin Akers

    April 25, 2021 at 12:35 am

    It’s funny to me how worked up people get about noises we make with our mouth‘s. Do you think chimpanzees get offended by other chimpanzees when they make a certain noise? Probably not.

  43. 誰でもいたくないのさ

    April 25, 2021 at 5:02 am

    this channel is no longer about education, its now about politics and indoctrination

  44. MS Mitchell

    April 25, 2021 at 5:05 pm

    I can’t believe that See you in Tuesday C**T has made such a popular emergence. Lol

  45. Vame Animations

    April 26, 2021 at 7:41 pm

    My gamer mind: oh this must be a CRIT!

  46. Radical Trivia

    April 26, 2021 at 8:48 pm

    I hit the Like Button the second she said “the river of slime in Ghostbusters II”.

  47. sleep lover

    April 27, 2021 at 4:34 pm

    What a great talk! Thank you!!!

  48. P. T.

    April 28, 2021 at 6:18 am

    Wonderful, thank you for this!!

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