Who invented the first swear word

Floo-Foo McPoodles a bitch. Bitch develops from the Old English bicce. Many people consider this curse word doubly offensive. The phrase motherfucker referring to someone or something despicable was originally documented during an case argued at the Texas Court of Appeals. In the World War II era, motherfucker became a more popular way to say someone or something is irritating or ruthless. As the s rolled around, the word took a turn for the better, if you can believe it.

But did you know that hell is recorded before the year ? It comes from the Old English hel and hell , a term for the abode of the dead in mythology—and especially for the wicked, hence the Christian Hell. Hell is related to a number of similar words in Germanic languages, like the Old Icelandic Hel , goddess of the underworld.

It can refer to anything from using the restroom to being exceedingly angry. The word piss is first recorded around —, from French pissier , ultimately from a Latin word meant to imitate the sound of, well, peeing. In the World War II era, it became an intensifier piss-poor , piss-ugly. The word bastard has been evidenced since at least , and comes from the Anglo-French bastard , in turn from the Medieval Latin bastardus.

These have all since been lost, or have been changed to Grape Lane , but all are still easily traced. Shavecuntewelle in Kent in , for example, could describe a nearby valley with a narrow wooded area—a literal lady-garden, if you will—or it could be a site where women were punished.

Cuntewellewang in Lincolnshire seems to describe a similar type of landscape. Perhaps the most glorious example of cunt in a place name is Hungery Cunt , found in a military map of Kinross-shire, Scotland. Disappointingly, though, this is probably just a mistake: a misreading of Hungeremout. These early instances of now heavily taboo words open up the world of normal people in medieval England and a different—and more vibrant—picture of the history of our language.

They allow us to meet a very literal and pragmatic people with a healthy sense of toilet humour about their bodies and their environment. They were, and they wrote their fare share of smut to prove it. Take the following example, which, more than anything else, shows that dick-jokes are universal:. This piece originally appeared on newstatesman. You are using an outdated browser.

See Today's Synonym. Originally, the naughtiest of naughty words was actually quite an acceptable word, though no English speaker would say that today. F-ck is believed to have first showed up in written form some time in the s, and it was disguised in a cypher , although it was in use well before then. Eric Partridge, a famous etymologist, said that the German word was related to the Latin words for pugilist , puncture , and prick. The word became rarer in print in the 18th century when it came to be regarded as vulgar.