"flying fuck"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/18/2008 03:28 AM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 01:01:31AM -0400, Sam Clements wrote:
> > Newspaperarchive has from 1952 a cite for "take a flying jump at a rolling
> > doughnut" and from 1972 "take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut."  So the
> > expression no doubt goes back a ways, not that we'll find "flying fuck" in
> > print very easily.
>
>I know the whole thing of looking things up in the OED is
>somewhat out of favor, but I do want to point out that in our
>latest update, we published a 1938 example from John O'Hara of
>"take a flying fuck at a galloping rooster".

They don't even have to look at the online OED, Jesse.  I reported
the OED's 1938 instance, as well as its next, 1951, in an earlier
message on this list.  And (with respect to davemarc
<davemarc at PANIX.COM>'s finding, both of these also precede
"Slaughterhouse Five", which is I think 1969.

Joel

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