English is my first language and only, apart from some schoolboy German my only language. As Faulkner mentions the cunt word was one if not the worse swear word you could use. I grew up in the '70s & '80s and swear was not as publicly accepted as it is now. It was used between people but not in the media. Even in soft porn magazines you never saw the word cunt.
We kids used it but only as of the derogatory form as in "you're a right cunt". My parents didn't swear much, Mum never, Dad occasionally when Mum wasn't about.
I would occasionally slip a swear word out when my parents were around and I usually got the telling off of, "Don't swear", but once I used the cunt and all hell broke loose and I got a right good telling off.
It isn't a word I use much myself but then I'm not a great swearer, the occasional fuck, shit, bollocks, and that is it. For me what is termed swear words are for when you wish to express an extreme of something as in "that is fucking smart" as opposed to "that's smart" .
The word Pussy was about in the media, mainly in comedy. The Are you being served, series used it a lot. in the pretext of referring to Mrs, Slocombe's pet cat but everyone knew what it meant really. See some here. lol.
When I was growing up the slang for a vagina was Fanny and that was in wide use then and still is for my generation but in North American English, fanny is slang for your arse or ass. It always amused us greatly when an American male said something like "I had to put some cream on my fanny". But of course, as the main language of the internet seems to be North Americanised English using the word fanny would confuse matters whereas pussy is really the same in English English and American English.
