No I am not referring to any authors, message boards or online blow ups. Odd that 😉
There are certain phrases I just don’t see being used in historicals. The nifty etymology online says:
Shut up (v.) first recorded 1840
Now the book in question is set in 1810, so I think the usage is wrong anyway. But even if it had been set in 1840, I would have found it odd for a young miss to say shut up to a bastard son of a duke.
Is that just me?
What phrases throw you out of a story? It surprises me sometimes how old some slang is… my favorite word is really old!
Flying fuck originally meant “have sex on horseback” and is first attested c.1800 in broadside ballad “New Feats of Horsemanship.”
Damn, I wish Bob was a horseman now. I thought it was a myth!!
CindyS
You know what other words I can’t use in my westerns? Horseshit, bullshit and asshole. No kidding! They weren’t “invented” until the 1900s. Sigh… I really like bullshit and asshole. I have to make a conscious effort not to use them. It’s hard to come up with another word for someone who’s being an asshole. Ass just doesn’t always work, ya know?
Okay, so I’m an uber, word freak.
Fuck is an acronym for: Fornication Under Consent of the King. Apparently, newly married couples had to get consent to actually consummate their marriage; they would put something outside the door that said F.U.C.K…I learned this in college in a history class…go UCLA for teaching me such great stuff!!!
I haven’t gone to UCLA but snopes, wikipedia and The straight dope all say that is an urban legend.
Maybe you should email that teacher ;).
No “fuckin” way! Interesting! I wish I had that prof’s e-mail address, but I don’t. Need to research this some more…
I heard that was false too.