New oldest reference to the f-word found in 1310 court case

[Syt]

http://www.geek.com/news/earliest-reference-to-the-word-f-discovered-in-1310-court-case-1633997/

Earliest reference to the word f*** discovered in 1310 court case

The origins of the F-word remain obscure, however, some might protest to know exactly where it came from: It means to "fornicate under command of king." This is, in fact, one of several false etymologies proposing an acronymic origin of the word. The truth is, scholars don't quite know where the word came from, and we'll likely never get a straight answer. However, an English Historian by the name of Dr. Paul Booth of Keele University has stumbled across the earliest use we know of in a court case.

The incident at the heart of the case dates back to the year 1310. On December 8th of that year the name "Roger Fuckebythenavele" appeared in the county court plea rolls. The name sounds quite odd, but Booth states it's not real. Rather it's a part of a process to outlaw an act committed by a, likely, inexperienced youth named Roger.

Here's a picture of the text, which seems like another alphabet altogether:



Booth said in an interview with the Medievalists, "this surname is presumably a nickname." The name suggests one of two things "either mean an actual attempt at copulation by an inexperienced youth, later reported by a rejected girlfriend, or an equivalent of the word 'dimwit' i.e. a man who might think that that was the correct way to go about it." Thank goodness for modern-day sex-education, right?

Prior to Booth's discovery, the earliest known use of the word was in the poem Flen flyys, which was written around 1475. The line "fvccant vvivys of heli," is a mix of Latin and English, which translates to "...they fuck the wives of Ely."