Quim (slang)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quim is slang for the female genitalia. It can also refer to a woman or women collectively; this is considered offensive. In modern usage it is primarily heard in British speech.
There has also been some American use of quim with the meanings of a "very generous, pleasant, remarkable, or attractive girl or woman" or a "male homosexual who plays the female role", as well as vagina.[1]
Cassell's Dictionary of Slang suggests it may be a play on the Welsh word cwm meaning a valley. The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang instead says: "of uncertain origin; perhaps related to the old word queme pleasant." The Oxford English Dictionary agrees with this speculative etymology and has references to queme in Old English meaning "pleasant or satisfying".
The earliest use of the word quim listed in the OED is from around 1735 in a broadside ballad entitled The Harlot Unmask-d[1]:
- Tho' her Hands they are red, and her Bubbles are coarse,
- Her Quim, for all that, may be never the worse:
Various older slang dictionaries cite an earlier use of the word from a play dated 1613, Tumult Rawlinson MS, but this has not been confirmed and Tumult may have been lost in the Cotton library fire.
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[edit] Uses
- The term was used in the film Rob Roy (1995) by the Duke of Argyll (played by Andrew Keir), "Young Cunningham here was unable to tell arse from quim. What say you to that?".[2]
- The word is used in some modern translations of the Miller's Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.[3]
- The term is used extensively in the erotic mémoire My Secret Life.[4]
[edit] Other meanings
In Portuguese and Catalan, Quim is a short form of the name Joaquim.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Wentworth, Harold and Stuart Berg Flexnor. 1967. Dictionary of American Slang. Thomas Y. Crowell Company (Maruzen Asian Edition). P. 416.
- ^ Rob Roy Script - Dialogue Transcript accessed on 7 January, 2007
- ^ Chaucer, Geoffrey, The Canterbury Tales translated by Nevill Coghill, p. 91 The Miller's Tale (2003), Penguin Classics, ISBN 0140424385
- ^ 130 uses of the word quim, Walter, My Secret Life, first published Amsterdam, 1888-1894
[edit] References
- Ayto, John; Simpson, John (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866181-9.
- Green, Jonathon, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, (2000), Cassell and Co. ISBN 0-304-35167-9
- Halliwell, James Orchard, Dictionary of Archaic Words, (1989), Bracken Books, ISBN 1-85170-261-X
- The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 4 Apr. 2000
