Some finer points of grammar

[RICHARD ROMEO]

Alan wrote:  "This reminds me:  I've wondered about Pynchon's use of the 
word 'fuck'
in M&D.  Was the word in pretty common use in those days?  Obviously,
foax like Fielding and Sterne didn't use it in print, and Barth used
'swive' in _The Sot-Weed Factor_[1960].  What say ye, Academicks?"
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A few years back I volunteered at the Brooklyn Historical Society's 
library.  They had some old dictionaries, earliest I beleive was early 
19th C Dutch-English, and the f-word was included.

Richard Romeo
Coordinator of Cooperating Collections
The Foundation Center-NYC
212-807-2417
rromeo at fdncenter.org