"bumfuck"?

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu Jan 15 14:16:22 UTC 2009


At 1/14/2009 10:53 PM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 10:11:55PM -0500, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> > Does "bumfuck", either noun "act of anal copulation" or verb, go back
> > to the18th century?
>
>Not as far as I know. I have one noun example from the
>Victorian era, and a handful of verb examples from that era
>(from the Pearl, My Secret Life, and other expected sources).

Then you may have another, from _A Novel: Blindspot, By a Lady in
Disguise & a Gentleman in Exile_.  This is actually written by Jane
Kamensky and Jill Lepore, both distinguished professors of history at
Boston area universities with expertise in the 18th century.  And
favorably reviewed (see the back of the dust jacket) by, among
others, Ben Franklin, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and Laurence Sterne.

But they anachronistically put "bumfuck" into the mouth of a
character of Boston in the 1760s.

2008
ISBN 978-0-385-52619-7
page 280
Weston, I won't have you in my house. Your indenture spells it out in
black and white. No fornication, you ha'penny bumfuck. Pack your
things and get out of here. At once!
"not in OED"

Joel

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