Note 4 — INTRODUCTION

Just as in an English dictionary we must indicate that the term ‘vagina’ is appropriate to a family-planning lecture, whereas, ‘cunt’ is not, so in Cebuano we must indicate that the term kinatáwu sa babáyi ‘female genitalia’ is fine for a family planning lecture but bilat ‘cunt’ is not. We do this by characterizing kinatáwu sa babáyi as a euphemism and characterizing bilat as coarse. We do not wish to say that one of these alternative forms is better than the other, nor do we mean to say that ‘coarse’ forms in Cebuano are taboo. (They are not taboo in the same way that the English four-letter words are, even though for formal occasions they are avoided.)