Antedating of "Suck"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 7/2/2010 08:51 AM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
>So we just ignore the reported fact that the abbreviation was "b.e."
>Or was it "b--e"?

Ron could find the original transcription himself, from "London
Lives" (view full size).  In an earlier deposition, by "Brittles",
one sees "b------e".  The line is hard to measure, but appears to be
about 6 en-dashes long.  Note that "y--d" also appears, and appears
to be 2 en-dashes.  In the deposition Fred cited, one sees "b----e",
about 4 en-dashes.

One wonders how it was rendered in the original manuscript.  Perhaps
even *not* abbreviated, as was the case for some vulgar expressions
in 17th century Massachusetts court records.

Joel

>------Original Message------
>From: Joel S. Berson
>Sender: ADS-L
>To: ADS-L
>ReplyTo: ADS-L
>Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Antedating of "Suck"
>Sent: Jul 2, 2010 8:49 AM
>
>At 7/1/2010 07:34 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
> >"Bunghole" and "bumhole" are both good candidates for this 1772
> >usage. From OED:
> >
> >...
> >
> >bum-hole:
> >slang (chiefly Brit.).
> >ARSEHOLE n. (in various senses). In early use: spec. the anus; =
> >ARSEHOLE n. 1.
> >1611 J. FLORIO Queen Anna's New World of Words at Trullo, A trill
> or bum-hole.
> >1665 J. PHILLIPS tr. P. Scarron Typhon i. 5 Ran as swift from Pole to
> >Pole, As if h'd had at his bum-hole The God of Fire.
>
>IIRC I've seen "bumhole" in 18th-c. writing.  (The OED has only one
>quotation for this oft-slighted century, 1713.)
>
>Joel
>
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