A documentary airing on BBC Scotland, titled “Scotland-
Contains Strong Language,” examines the history of swearing in the northernmost
country in the United Kingdom. The documentary touts the Bannatyne Manuscript,
which dates to 1568 and is so revered it is kept locked up in the National
Library of Scotland. The iconic manuscript is a collection of poems originally
written and possessed by a student named George Bannatyne (hence the title}
when he was—get this—confined to his Edinburgh home due to the plague. We can
all sympathize.
The
manuscript is famous for containing William Dunbar’s epic poem, “The Flyting of
Dunbar and Kennedie,” in which the two poets trade insults…including the first
known use of the “f-bomb.” At one point, as the two wordsmiths verbally
spar with each other, Kennedie dubs Dunbar a “wan fukkit funling.” Dr. Joanna
Kopaczyk, historical linguistics professor at Glasgow University, verifies this
and informs viewers of the show: “In the Flyting of Dunbar
and Kennedy, when Kennedy addresses Dunbar, there is the earliest surviving
record of the word 'f***' in the world.” She added, “It might never quite make
the tourist trail, but here in the National Library we have the first written
'f***' in the world. I think that's something to be proud of.” Well, we all
need something to hang our hat on, Lassie!
A
spokeswoman for the National Library acknowledged that the manuscript has “long
been known” to contain “some strong swearwords that are now common in everyday
language,” but noted that, at the time, “they were very much used in
good-natured jest.”
Incredibly,
more than 450 years after Bannatyne was forced to shelter-in-place due
to the plague, despite all the progress and technological breakthroughs, we are
doing the very same thing. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Back to the future, I guess.
The way things
are going now, all I have to say is: fukkit.
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