Antedating of "Son of a Bitch"

[Jonathan Lighter]

How 'bout Shakespeare's: "Son and heir of a mongrel bitch"?

Brackets maybe?

JL

On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 10:29 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Antedating of "Son of a Bitch"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> son of a bitch (OED 1707)
>
> 1665 Monsieur Scarron _The Comical Romance_ 8 (Early English Books Online)
> =
>  They soon knew their own clothes worn by _Therore_ and _Herod_, and the
> mo=
> st cholerick of the two turning towards the Marker: Son of a Bitch, said
> he=
> , wherefore didst thou lend my clothes to that Puppet-player?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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