From: gregerh@spammersgetbent.net   
      
   On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 05:29:02 GMT, "Jim Beaver"   
    wrote:   
      
   >As to the AD 2004 foul language:  As everyone pretty much knows, the "f"   
   >word goes back beyond Chaucer, the female genitalia "c" word goes back   
   >further than that, and the defecation words go back nearly as far.  The   
   >"m-f" compound word, while reportedly used long before 1876, I claim was   
   >invented by my character, Ellsworth, at the moment he used it in the first   
   >episode.  (If you listen closely, perhaps you can hear the hyphen I tried to   
   >audibly insert into this "new" word.  That's my story.)   
   >   
   >The most frequent complaint is the "c-s" compound word, which many people   
   >swear is of recent vintage (maybe not 2004, but not the 1800s.)  Well, in my   
   >recent reading, unrelated to the show, I ran across this, from the United   
   >States Army's Court of Inquiry into the actions of Lt. Col. N.A.M. Dudley,   
   >commandant of Fort Stanton, New Mexico, held in 1879:   
   >   
   >Testimony of Marion Turner:  "I said, 'Show me your warrants.  Where are   
   >they?'  And Jim French said, 'They're in our guns, you cocksucking sons of   
   >bitches!'"  (Vol. 2, p. 394, Records Relating to the Dudley Court of   
   >Inquiry, Judge Advocate General's Office, CQ 1284, Record Group 153,   
   >National Archives.)   
   >   
   >If they were saying it in 1879, is it such a stretch to believe they were   
   >saying it in 1876?   
      
   No, not at all. I knew that the words fuck and cunt are almost as old   
   as sin itself, and didn't rule out the compound words you mentioned,   
   although I thought they weren't in use quite that far back. It was the   
   words describing the prostitutes' various tricks, like blowjob and   
   handjob, that struck me as distinctly modern and definitely not   
   periodically correct. OTOH, I ain't even American nor a linguist, so I   
   could be wrong.   
      
   Thanks for pointing to the 1879 documentation of the word cocksucker.   
   It was quite a funny reference. So was the Deadwoodian origin of the   
   word motherfucker, while we're at it. I can't remember that particular   
   scene, but I'll keep my ears open for it when I watch the next time.   
   --   
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   What's up Chuck?   
      
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