If it’s set within Victorian times, you might find a few expressions “rough” sorts would use on this page. Look in the “crime” section.
Pardon me, that would be the section titled “Words and Phrases” -> “criminal slang”, not the “crime section”. :o I’m giving the link, in the hopes that maybe it goes back just far enough to be of use to you. Maybe the person who operates the site would know where you could look to find such things though, if not?
Also, you say English, do you mean British English, or American English? The slang would be different depending on country of origin.
Re: Shakespeare’s arses;
**Cibber! write all thy verses upon glasses,
The only way to save 'em from our arses. **
Alexander Pope (attributed), in reference to Colley Cibber, Poet Laureate 1730-57.
Note that within 30 years of Shakespeare’s time, “arses” and “glasses” are rhymed by Pope (who was born in 1688). Now, either he put a “cockney” pronounciation on “glasses” (“glarses”), or intended “arses” to read as “asses.” If the latter, it may just be poetic licence for the sake of a good scan.
Partidge is the man you want for historic slang, vulgarity and swearing. Try and get a used copy of his “Dictionary of Historical Slang,” published in paperback by Penguin in the 1970s.
Not saying you’re wrong, but I can only find four references to that line on ye olde interwebbe, and they’re all from the attribution given in a single book, published in 1954, at which time the Southern England accent would have rhymed those two words. (Of course I haven’t read the book, either.)
Thirty years? More like a 130 years. Shakespeare died in 1616.
Interesting. I have also read of Indians in the 19th century American southwest referring to Anglos as “goddams.”
American writer Washington Irving was amused by a boy street peddler in Europe who tried to his attention with “God damn!”
Thank you for adding “He will never shite a seamen’s turd!” to my list of insults.
I’d be more inclined to think it came from the English, because the pronunciation is more similar. In any American dialect I can think of, the vowel is unrounded, like in the English.
I’ll try to post an intelligent reply to tom’s statements a bit later tonight. If you don’t have Jesse Sheidlower’s excellent paperback, The F Word, you should get it. Jesse is the North American guy in charge of the OED and one of the brightest guys in the field today. His book is comprehensive and the best out there on the dates/origins/meanings of the word.
Tune in a bit later… I’m playing catch up here.
Heh-hem.
Sheidlower cites “I don’t give a fuck” and such from the late 1800’s, attibuted to English writers. It does seem to show up in the US later, WWI.
1800’s examples of expressions such as “what the fuck!” are from English sources.
As an interjection it doesn’t seem to appear much before WWI, and in the US.
“Mr. Baker replied that deponent would be fucked out of his money by Mr. Brown” is in a court document from the 1860’s/US.
There isn’t much that would lend credence to tom’s theory about the Irish in WWI. But again, trying to find enough early printed cites for the word is difficult at best.
I wonder, in all seriousness, whether the court record actually says “sucked out of his money”, with a long s written in cursive hand being misread as an “f” by modern eyes.
“Sucked out of his money” doesn’t sound like a useful expression.