The "two Beastly Monosyllables"

[Laurence Horn]

On Mar 14, 2013, at 1:56 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> F--- and c---?
>
> There are other possibilities, but historically these are  the classics
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 8:45 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      The "two Beastly Monosyllables"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> In a quack's touting of his cures (1707), he tells of a young woman
>> who would "talk Bawdy " before everyone, "nay, name the two Beastly
>> Monosyllables before the Doctor and Lecturer of the Parish."
>>
>> What might the to Beastly Monosyllables" have been in 1707?
>>

FWIW, in Farmer & Henley the 850 synonyms for "cunt" are listed at the entry MONOSYLLABLE. The 1340 synonyms for "fuck" are entered under GREENS.  So "cunt" was even more of a monosyllable than "fuck", at least by the late 19th c.

LH

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