First Recorded F-Bomb

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For unlawful carnal knowledge — or just bad aim?

Read:

Paul Booth, a historian at Keele University in England, found three examples dating from 1310 and 1311 of a man known in legal documents as Roger Fuckebythenavel.

Booth said he believes Roger was not the bearer of a very unfortunate family name, but rather it was given to him derogatorily.

“This surname is presumably a nickname,” Booth told Medievalists.net. “I suggest it could 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.”

Thankfully — I think — English insults have since become slightly more sophisticated.