Okay, here's the question:

When did we start using the, uh, word? You know the one I mean. The one that always makes your mother hiccup when you say it.

Seriously. I'm always a bit taken back when I read a novel or story set a hundred years ago or more and everyone's using the word. Did they really use it back then?

My thought is no. But I can see two schools of thought.

First, we'll call it the Pressfield School (after Steven Pressfield, who wrote Gates of Fire, etc.). His six hundred Spartans curse like sailors. Strong sailors. Sailors who haven't been to port in a year.

As I was reading the book, I found actually found myself saying, "Eh, Steven, I'm not sure they would actually talk like a bunch of drunken marines. Maybe, but probably not."

The second school, let's call it the Sahara school (after the author of The Killer Angels). He actually states in his introduction that he based the language in his book on the written form (i.e. letters and other correspondence) of the time.

Here's my opinion (I welcome yours). I don't think they did use the work like we do, F**ing this and F**ing that. Why, because we use it, and it appears in our writing. I mean, it is everywhere in our culture. Shakespear used curses in his plays, so cursing was as enjoyable then as it is now. But I don't think they used that word.

Or did they?

I am unsettled on this issue.