Anglo-Saxon Terms

In relation to the language of swearing, the epithet “Anglo-Saxon” is commonly used to mean “four-letter.” This equation of the most powerful swearwords with the most ancient word-stock is strictly a misconception, at best a half-truth, although it continues to be found in both learned and popular usage. Thus on July 21, 1959, a U.S. federal judge, Frederick van Pelt Bryan, handed down a judgment in favor of Lady Chatterley’s Lover , noting that “Four-letter Anglo-Saxon words are used with some frequency” (cited in Craig 1962, 158). More recently Ronald Pearsall observed: “The English language of sex is curt and Anglo-Saxon” (1969, 368). The reader will be aware of many similar instances in popular usage.

In fact what are now the most wounding and obscene terms in English swearing are first recorded long after the Anglo-Saxon period, which is broadly defined in historical terms as extending from the earliest written records to about 1100. It turns out that the true Anglo-Saxon terms are confined to common “lavatorial” words, while the strongest terms are of unknown origin and recorded much later. The following table sets out the field in terms of etymological origin and historical evolution: