sounds like "punt"

[Diana York Blaine]

Just a thought on the cunt controversy--why are many women more squeamish
about it than other terms? Perhaps because women feel so violated in so
many aspects of their lives, e.g. we often get told by total strangers to
"smile" or "cheer up" as if our mien is public property, that having one
fetishized word, bracketed off from casual discourse, creates the illusion
of a kind of untouchable zone--an eddy of dignity as it were. This is
total speculation of my part, and I'm sure some feminist somewhere has
probably tackled the issue with greater eloquence, but I find this idea
more compelling than simply arguing that its harsh monosyllabic
anglo-saxonism is too icky.  BTW for an amusing passage on why so many of
our derogatory terms refer to female genitalia and/or the man's relation
to the female (think "motherfucker") see Fanny Flagg's _Fried Green
Tomatoes_.  She also does a funny number on "balls."   Diana