One of the first curse words we learn that effectively becomes a part of our daily vocabulary is fuck . Yet we hardly know who used it first and where it came from. Though the word today aptly manages to describe almost every emotion we have, but really, hardly any of us have given a fuck about finding out where it was first used in recorded text.
Well, fuck yeah! Now we know.
Dr Paul Booth, a former lecturer of medieval history and an honorary senior research fellow in history at Keele University, UK, says he has come across the first time the word was used. He believes the earliest use of the word fuck was in 1310 and it was definitely used as a sexual connotation.
Dr Booth made this accidental discovery in a set of Chester County court documents from September 1310 while researching the period of Edward II. ” I thought it might be a clerk’s joke, but I think this is actually someone who have been given this nickname. It’s written clearly, and three times, and I think that shows it’s not a joke,” Dr Booth said to the mailonline .
Though the doctor was convinced that the word had a clear sexual connotation, he has two explanations to what it actually means. ” Either this refers to an inexperienced copulator, referring to someone trying to have sex with the navel, or its a rather extravagant explanation for a dimwit, someone so stupid they think this that is the way to have sex,” he said.
The county records show that the accused was tried three times before he was outlawed and probably executed. According to Dr Booth, even if the name was used as mockery, it is still the first evidence of the word fuck and cannot be ignored.
Previously, it was most popularly believed that the ‘F’ word was first used by a monk in 1528, who scrawled the words “O d fuckin’ about” on the sidelines of a manuscript by Cicero.
The doctor said that he has written to the Oxford English dictionary about his latest finding and is waiting to hear back from them. He also plans on publishing an article about his discovery in the journal Notes and Queries.