Last night, the ABC taught us a new term. And it's X-rated

What a time to be alive.

Someone — a public official, no less — dropped the C-bomb into Australians’ lounge rooms last night.

C*nt struck. It’s the word on everyone’s lips after the Michael Lawler and Kathy Jackson Four Corners interview (an interview that, let’s face it, would be generous to describe as a complete trainwreck for its subjects.)

It’s the word embattled Fair Work Commission official (and Tony Abbott appointee) Lawler used, nonchalantly, to describe how others might see his relationship with the former union official accused of fraud, Kathy Jackson.

This is what he said: “I’ll be characterised as that scumbag, crook, fraudster and at the very best, somebody who’s been bewitched by an evil harridan, namely Kathy, that I’m c**t struck and that I have been utterly taken in by somebody who’s a serious crook.”

Interviewer Caro Meldrum-Hanna didn’t miss a beat. “And are you?” she asked.

“No, no!” he responded.

Let’s rewind a moment, shall we? “C**t struck”.

Yeah, he said that. What’s even more excellent is that the ABC elected to keep it in the show. I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall of that production meeting. To c**t struck or not to c**t struck?

Watch a clip of the show here. Post continues below…

Anyway, as you’d expect, Twitter immediately exploded with glee, and #c**tstruck was everywhere.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, as I was until shortly after 9pm last night, allow me to enlighten you.

C**t struck: “To be in a state of having an irrational and strong emotional and physical attraction to a woman.”

That’s according to the Urban Dictionary. Here’s a brilliant example of how to use it in a sentence:

— “Where’s Harry? I thought he wouldn’t miss this (sporting event) for the world!”

“Nah mate, it’s not surprising, he’s totally c**t struck. He hasn’t left the house for a week. Her name’s Briony. Nice tits.”

— “No shit?”

“Yeah.”

Let’s get more legit, with Susan Butler, the editor of the Macquarie Dictionary.

“[Lawler] was trying to get to the lowest of the low and ended up doing that by saying he would be described as ‘c**t struck’. Which is a word that means infatuated, infatuated to an almost, you know, to an obsessional degree,” Butler told Michael Brissendon on AM this morning.

She added that the term goes way back to old British English, dating to around the 1890s, when people had a diverse and imaginative sexual slang vocabulary.

So let’s try it in another sentence, just so that you’re clear.

“Michael Lawler has become so dumbstruck with love that he was unaware that using the expression c**t struck on national television could be a grievous error.”

Over to you now. When was the last time you used c**t struck in a sentence?