What does "a Bit*h with a capital C" mean?

Shiny   Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:20 pm GMT
This term may be offensive. I heard this term when watching a TV show today, I don't know it's meaning. I googled it just now, but I got nothing.

Can anybody tell me what's the meaning of the term "bit*h with a capital C"? What does "capital C" mean? Thank you very much.
Cow   Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:08 pm GMT
pretty much the same as the version with the lowercase C.
Shiny   Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:39 pm GMT
<< pretty much the same as the version with the lowercase C. >>

Then what's does the version with the lowercase C mean? I don't know either.

Thx.
Lazar   Mon Oct 30, 2006 5:50 pm GMT
Well, the most common version would of course be "...with a capital B". (This version turns up 182 Google hits.) This is just a simple way of adding emphasis to the word "b*tch."

The version that says "...with a capital C" turns up 86 Google hits. If I'm not mistaken, it's a play on words, with the "C" referring to what is quite possibly the worst word in the English language. In other words, I would really advise you not to use this expression. ;-)
Boy   Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:30 pm GMT
Just for my personal info, I want to know what that word is.
Lazar   Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:48 pm GMT
It looks just like "hunt" or "bunt", except it starts with a C. ;-)
Robin   Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:53 pm GMT
Etymology
Cunt is an old Germanic word (Proto-Germanic *kunton), and appeared as queynte in Middle English and kunta in Old Norse. It has cognates in most Germanic languages, such as the Swedish, Faroese and Old Norwegian kunta, Frisian kunte, Dutch kut, and German kott. While kont in Dutch refers to the buttocks, kut is considered far less offensive in Dutch speaking areas than cunt is in the English speaking world. However, kont, the Afrikaans equivalent of cunt, is considered more offensive to Afrikaans-speakers than cunt is to English-speakers.

The etymology of the term is however disputed. It may have arisen by Grimm's law operating on the Proto-Indo-European root *gen/gon = "create, become" seen in gonads, genital, gamete, genetics, gene, or the Proto-Indo-European root *gwneH2/guneH2 = "woman" seen in gynaecology. Relationships to similar-sounding words such as the Latin cunnus (vulva), and its derivatives French con, and Spanish coño have not been conclusively demonstrated. Other Latin words related to cunnus: cuneatus, wedge-shaped; cuneo v. fasten with a wedge; (figurative) to wedge in, squeeze in, leading to English words like cuneiform (wedge-shaped).
Damian in Edinburgh   Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:04 pm GMT
Why this strange coyness with the * insertion in place of the "c" when typing that old English word "bitch"? Presumably that's the word you have in mind? Bitch? Why the reluctance to type that word out in full? It's a perfectly ordinary word isn't it?

My dictionary quotes several meanings for BITCH:

1 A female dog or other female canine animal, such as a wolf

2 A mean, malicious, spiteful, coarse, vulgar, offensive woman

3 A complaint

4 A difficult situation or a problem

5 To moan, whine, whinge, complain, grumble

All very straight forward. The word in full is BITCH. A perfectly ordinary word that fits all the above descriptions when used in the respective meanings as above. *s are not necessary. Say and write what you mean.

btw my well respected English dictionary also clearly states the meaning of the word "CUNT" which has its origins in the German Language and related to Old Norse. Before prudishness and tabooism took over all such words were in common parlance.

In this regard I assume you're American.
Laura Braun   Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:53 pm GMT
I'm not an expert , but what I think is that B***H refers to certain behaviour of woman, you know when a female dog is going to have certain smell and all male dogs are going after it. So what I think that B***H refers to woman with such behavior.
Uriel   Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:09 pm GMT
No, a bitch is a very unpleasant woman. It has nothing to do with sexual behavior. We have other words for those kinds of women.

"Bitch with a capital C" is pretty funny, by the way. It plays with the fact that "cunt" is considered a much worse insult than "bitch". You're pretty much burning your bridges when you call a girl that.

And that does appear to be a big difference between English-speaking countries -- in the US, "cunt" would only be applied as an insult to a woman, not to a man (for reasons that make perfect sense to me!), but in the UK and Australia, it's applied to men instead (for reasons that, honestly, completely escape me....)

<<Why this strange coyness with the * insertion in place of the "c" when typing that old English word "bitch"?>>

Quite a few websites (although not this one) have an automatic filter that bleeps out bad words, so it's a pretty common practice to get creative with the spelling to preserve the word -- the asterisk often throws off the filtering program, so that it can't recognize the entire word. So you will find people writing things like "bullsh!t" or "a$$hole" in order to circumvent prudish software. People need to swear, and they always find a way....
Robin   Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:18 pm GMT
If a man behaves in a sly and devious way, he could be called a 'cunt'.

The thing about 'offensive words' when you see them in print, is that they are still 'offensive'.
Impurethinker   Sun Nov 19, 2006 11:38 am GMT
I suppose calling a man a cunt would be like calling him a pussy-- that is you aren't lit. calling him a woman but rather questioning his manhood.
jake   Sun Nov 19, 2006 8:36 pm GMT
<<Can anybody tell me what's the meaning of the term "bit*h with a capital C"? What does "capital C" mean? Thank you very much.>>

It's an American term. Bitch is more generally used as a term to refer to a woman that is unpleasent, or say, uncooperative (there are other uses). A bitch with a capital "C" is not a bitch at all, she's a cunt. And in America it would be worse to call a woman a cunt rather than a bitch. A cunt would be more than what a bitch is, she'd also be manipulative, and vindictive, expressing a model of behavior that would test the limits of the don't hit women eitquette.

>>I suppose calling a man a cunt would be like calling him a pussy-- that is you aren't lit. calling him a woman but rather questioning his manhood.<<

As far as I know it's more of an affectionate term, in Britain, and Australia. You would not however refer to a man as a cunt, affectionate or otherwise, in America. You could use bitch, however, to question his manhood.
kitty   Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:53 pm GMT
what is a cunt?
just a guess   Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:47 am GMT
maybe it means a capital bitch, as in major bitch.