# Anachronistic Writing/Word Choice (F-word) in A Touch of Sin by Susan Johnson **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 27, 2001, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651 "2001-05-27T04:32:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![galyean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f9ae1b/32.png) [@galyean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galyean)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/1 "2001-05-27T04:32:02Z")
This story is set in 1825 alternately in France and England. The main character often uses the F-word and P-word during sex scenes. Was this common for this time period in England/France? When did these words come into the language? What is their origin? I thought I recalled a similar question recently, but a search was unsuccessful. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/2 "2001-05-27T04:42:22Z")
Well, the F-word goes back to Old English, so I imagine it was in frequent use during the 1820s. Not anachronistic at all. Now, I imagine that gentlemen wouldn’t use such words in mixed company, but I’m sure they knew what it meant and could use it when appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/3 "2001-05-27T05:46:59Z")
From the _Wordsworth Dictionary of Obscenity & Taboo_ > [@](#): > > **FUCK** … The word has been around since at leat the sixteenth century, and it may well be much older, although there is no written record of it. > > **PUSSY** \*The female genitals.\*The word has been used in this sense since at least the seventeenth century. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/4 "2001-05-27T06:13:54Z")
One writer of the 17th century who made frequent use of the “f-word” was [John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester](http://www.earlhaig.com/~irina/roch.htm). Here’s one of my favourite Rochester poems (not to worry, mods, it’s got to be public domain by now!). Rochester had to flee the court for several months after handing this to King Charles II by mistake. [WARNING - language that follows is normally found in the Pit! Included for historical accuracy, and to answer the question in the OP.] > [@](#): > > A Satyre on Charles II > > In th’ isle of Britain, long since famous grown > For breeding the best cunts in Christendom, > There reigns, and oh! long may he reign and thrive, > The easiest King and best bred man alive. > Him no ambition moves to get reknown > Like the French fool, that wanders up and down > Starving his people, hazarding his crown. > Peace is his aim, his gentleness is such, > And love he loves, for he loves **fucking** much. > Nor are his high desires above his strength: > His scepter and his prick are of a length; > And she may sway the one who plays with th’ other, > And make him little wiser than his brother. > Poor Prince! thy prick, like thy buffoons at court, > Will govern thee because it makes thee sport. > 'Tis sure the sauciest prick that e’er did swive, > The proudest, peremptoriest prick alive. > Though safety, law, religion, life lay on 't, > 'Twould break through all to make its way to cunt. > Restless he rolls about from whore to whore, > A merry monarch, scandalous and poor. > To Carwell, the most dear of all his dears, > The best relief of his declining years, > Oft he bewails his fortune, and her fate: > To love so well, and be beloved so late. > Yet his dull, graceless bollocks hang an arse. > This you’d believe, had I but time to tell ye > The pains it costs to poor, laborious Nelly, > Whilst she employs hands, fingers, mouth, and thighs, > Ere she can raise the member she enjoys. > All monarchs I hate, and the thrones they sit on, > From the hector of France to the cully of Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/5 "2001-05-27T13:30:06Z")
I think this has already been pretty well answered, but I thought I’d submit a thread in which I asked about the other uses of this very versatile word: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=15724](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=15724) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/6 "2001-05-27T15:05:39Z")
**mjollnir** Did you ever get a satisfactory answer to you question in the other link? As to when it became an intensifier? I thought I answered this question somewhere. Of course it could have been at Dave Wilton’s or any of many other sites. J E Lighter says in 1857(first cite) but in general usage around the 1880’s-1890’s. This is it’s origin _only as an intensifier_ and implies **nothing** else about its origin or usage. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/7 "2001-05-27T20:40:52Z")
[Moderator watch ON] Just a note to **Northern Piper** , here: Our criterion for usage of offensive language is relevance. Since this thread is, after all, asking about the usage of two such words, your post was perfectly appropriate. Don’t sweat it. Now, if you’d quoted that same poem in a thread about children’s games in various parts of the U. S., say, then _that_ would be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2001, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/8 "2001-05-27T22:29:45Z")
Thanks for the info, **samclem**. What actually prompted the question was I had recently (at the time) seen the movie **Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence** , in which the word is used as an intensifier. Since the movie was set during World War II, I was wondering whether the intensifier usage was common by then, or it was just an anachronism in the script. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/9 "2001-05-28T00:08:31Z")
_Fucking_ as an intensifier in WWII? Fuckin’ yeah! Especially in the Army & Navy. There was a joke in the Army (or maybe not a joke) that if the sergeant barks “Get your fucking rifles,” the soldiers know it’s just a routine drill. But if he should say “Get your rifles,” they know it’s serious action. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2001, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/10 "2001-05-28T02:16:58Z")
There are few things in life that create that frisson of terror equivalent to seeing the lights come up on the cop car behind you. A post beginning > [@](#): > > [Moderator watch ON] > > Just a note to **Northern Piper…** has exactly the same effect. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2001, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronistic-writing-word-choice-f-word-in-a-touch-of-sin-by-susan-johnson/66651/11 "2001-05-29T17:06:14Z")
[hijack] Passing a nasty poem about someone who can have you killed to that very person by accident? That’s gotta be the height of bad luck. Or maybe an early nominee for the Darwin awards? [end hijack]