FIRST WRITTEN USE OF THE F-WORD DISCOVERED

Linguists researching the history of swearing believe they have found the world’s earliest record of the F-word — in a book in the vault at the National Library of Scotland. Experts discovered a manuscript written by a bored university student named George Bannatyne in 1568 after a plague confined him to his home in Edinburgh. In it, a poem called “The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie” mentions an insult contest, known as a “slagging match” where poet Walter Kennedy calls rival William Dunbar a “wan [FRAKKIT] funling”. (* The actual word used is “f-u-k-k-i-t”.] Scots language expert Dr. Joanna Kopaczyk of Glasgow University who found the expletive, said Kennedy was claiming Dunbar was abandoned by his parents, and “This is the earliest surviving record of the f-word.”
* Next, she’s going to really get her hands dirty and look for the first use of the word in connection with “mother”.
* The discovery coincides with the invention of the first set of bagpipes.
* There’s a theory that the actual first use of the f-word was a Neanderthal man, who used it when he woke up on the very first Monday and realized he had to go to work.
* Researching the history of swearing. Once again, my high school guidance counselor did not provide me with a full range of career options.