Apr 7, 2020 02:14 AM
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/04/5...he-f-word/
EXCERPT: Scotland has much to recommend it [...] It's also, apparently, home to a medieval manuscript that contains the earliest known usage of the swear word "F#$%." The profanity appears in a poem recorded by a bored student in Edinburgh while under lockdown as the plague ravaged Europe—something we can all relate to these days. The poem is getting renewed attention...
The Bannatyne Manuscript [...has...] religious themes, moral or philosophical themes, love ballads, fables and allegories, and comedy, especially satire. The latter section is where one is most likely to encounter the swears, particularly in the poetry of William Dunbar and Walter Kennedy. Both poets feature in the poem where the notorious F-word appears: "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie."
Flyting is a poetic genre in Scotland—essentially a poetry slam or rap battle, in which participants exchange creative insults with as much verbal pyrotechnics (doubling and tripling of rhymes, lots of alliteration) as they can muster.
[...] Dunbar and Kennedy supposedly faced off for a flyting ... around 1500, and their exchange was set down for posterity in Bannatyne's manuscript. ... And then comes the historic moment: an insult containing the phrase "wan fukkit funling," marking the earliest known surviving record of the F-word... (MORE - details)
EXCERPT: Scotland has much to recommend it [...] It's also, apparently, home to a medieval manuscript that contains the earliest known usage of the swear word "F#$%." The profanity appears in a poem recorded by a bored student in Edinburgh while under lockdown as the plague ravaged Europe—something we can all relate to these days. The poem is getting renewed attention...
The Bannatyne Manuscript [...has...] religious themes, moral or philosophical themes, love ballads, fables and allegories, and comedy, especially satire. The latter section is where one is most likely to encounter the swears, particularly in the poetry of William Dunbar and Walter Kennedy. Both poets feature in the poem where the notorious F-word appears: "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie."
Flyting is a poetic genre in Scotland—essentially a poetry slam or rap battle, in which participants exchange creative insults with as much verbal pyrotechnics (doubling and tripling of rhymes, lots of alliteration) as they can muster.
[...] Dunbar and Kennedy supposedly faced off for a flyting ... around 1500, and their exchange was set down for posterity in Bannatyne's manuscript. ... And then comes the historic moment: an insult containing the phrase "wan fukkit funling," marking the earliest known surviving record of the F-word... (MORE - details)