A 19th Century F-Word Use

[Jonathan Lighter]

Now if they'd found it used as an "adjective of extreme contumely" in 1850 - THAT would've been something!

JL

"Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Baker, John"
Subject: A 19th Century F-Word Use
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Gene Weingarten's column, in the Washington Post for 2/6/2005 and syndicated in other newspapers, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55085-2005Feb1.html, reproduces an interesting use of "fucking" from the National Archives:

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Weingarten indicated in an online chat today that the archivists were astonished to find the term. Presumably they brought it to his attention for use in his humor column.

John Baker


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