Most of the words that are considered vulgar in the UK are Anglo Saxon.  My favourite is shit-house.  Navel seems to be the exception, which is Anglo Saxon for wheel hub, and slang for the umbilicus.  I have no idea why it is acceptable to say 'navel', but not 'cunt'.  I imagine it's the fault of the Normans.  

> Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 10:10:29 +0100
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Ekphrastic
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Words from Latin and Greek are considered respectable (e.g.
> scientific), words of northern European derivation are not (e.g.
> vulgar). Viz. penis and cock. There are very many examples like this.
> The Marxists seem not to have grasped the potential of this situation
> as a class weapon.
> pr
>
>
> On 22 Jul 2013, at 03:56, Mark Weiss wrote:
>
> An old term that to the best of my knowledge is only very recent in
> common academic usage. It entered the jargon with a lot of other words
> ending in -ic, sometime in the 80s, as folks in the humanities began
> to feel insecure. Insecurity has always engendered increased use of
> words from latin and greek. Comforting as an old pipe and slippers.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michael Heller <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Jul 21, 2013 10:42 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Ekphrastic
> >
> > I don't know if Peter is pulling someone's leg, but there's a detailed
> > discussion of the topic in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and
> > Poetics, and then there is this on Poetry Mag's website:
> > http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19939. But it is not in the
> > shorter OED, which is all I have in my western summer getaway.
> >
> > --
> > Home page: michaelhellerpoetry.com
> >
> > Recent books: This Constellation Is A Name: Collected Poems
> > 1965-2010 (Nightboat Books, 2012);Beckmann Variations & Other Poems
> > (Shearsman, 2010); Eschaton (Talisman, 2009); Speaking the
> > Estranged: Essays on the work of George Oppen (Salt, 2008);
> > Uncertain Poetries: Essays on Poets, Poetry and Poetics (Salt,
> > 2005); Exigent Futures: New and Selected Poems (Salt, 2003).
> > Available at bookstores, SPD and at Amazon.com
> >
> > Collaborations with the composer Ellen Fishman Johnson: This Art
> > Burning and other poetry, Benjamin (a music-theater work based on
> > the life of Walter Benjamin), go to: http://www.efjcomposer.com/efjcomposer/Welcome.html
> > and for excerpts visit Ellen’s Youtube videos at: http://www.youtube.com/user/efjcomposer
> >
> > Michael Heller PennSound page: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Heller.php