[Ads-l] Antedating of _fuck_

[Dave Wilton]

Yes, it's definitely an "f." The script looks to be Cursiva Anglicana, a 14th century hand used in documentary records. (I could be wrong on the identification, but it's very similar.) 

I wish we had a photo that gave a wider view of the page; that way we would see more examples of letters and could puzzle out some of the paleographic difficulties from context.

We probably have to wait for the journal article to be published. Although it's going to be in Notes & Queries, so I'm not sure how much detail we'll get.



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Mark Mandel
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2015 2:32 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Antedating of _fuck_

No, not a long "s": it has a crossbar. In the second photo, compare the word two lines up, ending just over the beginning of the name. I can't figure it all out, but it begins "porſſ...", where the fourth and fifth letters are long s. Note the absence of crossbars.


. <http://X-Clacks-Overhead.dw/GNU-Terry_Pratchett>  .
<http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/>


On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 5:24 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:

> I think it's a long s.=C2=A0 "Suckbythenavel" makes more sense.
>
> Joel
>
>

> >
> http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/10/the-earliest-use-of-the-f-word-
> dis= covered/History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 
> 1998..
>
>

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