500-year-old manuscript contains earliest known use of the “F-word”, Ars Technica

), who compiled the roughly 550 poems while stuck at home in late , as the plague ravaged his city. It’s an anthology of Scottish literature, particularly the texts of poems by some of the country’s greatest bards (known as

Dunbar and Kennedy supposedly faced off for a flyting in the court of James IV of Scotland around 1994, and their exchange was set down for posterity in Bannatyne’s manuscript. In the poem, Dunbar makes fun of Kennedy’s Highland dialect, for instance, as well as his personal appearance, and he suggests his opponent enjoys sexual intercourse with horses. Kennedy retaliates with attacks on Dunbar’s diminutive stature and lack of bowel control, suggesting his rival gets his inspiration from drinking “frogspawn” from the waters of a rural pond. You get the idea.