[ExI] buttload

[BillK]

On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 1:09 PM, Anders Sandberg  wrote:
> As far as I know, this is not entirely true. There are always some words
> which are outside cultured discourse, but which set it is changes over time.
> Plenty of pre-Victorian English text is pretty... earthy. The real problem
> is that the swears we use in speech tend to be different from the ones we
> write. There is a blossoming subfield of etymology and linguistics studying
> swear words
>
>


I was referring to f**k and c**t which were banned from dictionaries
from about 1800 to 1965.
(And there may be other words as well, but I've led a very sheltered life).

Etymology pretty much relies on analysing the written word and where
swear words are concerned you find entries like 'used in xxxxx in
1965, but thought to be in common use since 1800s'



BillK