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a very amusing story on the earliest known use of the F word :D
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oldest-f-word_55f65a3fe4b063ecbfa4b9d6A researcher has found what is believed to be the earliest written example of the f-word.
(Caution: a certain four-letter word is used ahead, and used repeatedly.)
Paul Booth, a historian at Keele University in England, found three examples dating from 1310 and 1311 of a man known in legal documents as Roger Fuckebythenavel.
Booth said he believes Roger was not the bearer of a very unfortunate family name, but rather it was given to him derogatorily.
Historian Finds Oldest Use Of F-Word Hidden In Medieval Court Papers
It could be "fourteenth-century revenge porn."
Posted: 09/14/2015 05:09 AM EDT
A researcher has found what is believed to be the earliest written example of the f-word.
(Caution: a certain four-letter word is used ahead, and used repeatedly.)
Paul Booth, a historian at Keele University in England, found three examples dating from 1310 and 1311 of a man known in legal documents as Roger Fuckebythenavel. Booth said he believes Roger was not the bearer of a very unfortunate family name, but rather it was given to him derogatorily.
Roger Fuckebythenavele from a Chester court roll dated 8 December 1310 found in @UkNatArchives by Dr Paul Booth! pic.twitter.com/rI6q3RUtFX — Aine Foley (@AineMedievalDub) September 12, 2015
"This surname is presumably a nickname," Booth told Medievalists.net. "I suggest it could either mean an actual attempt at copulation by an inexperienced youth, later reported by a rejected girlfriend, or an equivalent of the word ‘dimwit,’ i.e., a man who might think that that was the correct way to go about it.”
If Roger actually tried to do it in the navel and someone told the world about it, the name could be "fourteenth-century revenge porn," Booth told Vice. Booth noted that Roger was before the court three times over a nine-month period, and each time his last name was spelled differently: Fuckebythenavele, Fukkebythenavele and, finally, Fuckebythenavel.
"On the first two occasions he was 'exacted' (solemnly summoned to attend court to answer a serious criminal charge, which is unspecified) and on the third he was outlawed," Booth wrote in an abstract, titled "Roger the incompetent copulator," that he posted online. "He was probably never heard of again."
As Booth told the Daily Mail, an outlaw could be "executed without trial if caught."
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