Old West "Cuss" Words

[Kenny D. Hare]

Now, there's no question whether or not, cowboys verbally used swear words 130 years ago. The real question is, what were the favorite ugly words of that time period? I watched the complete first season of the HBO series, "Deadwood" a few weeks back. And I can certainly tell you they used some darling little words. I couldn't help but think, maybe they sounded a little too modern. So, does anyone know what colorful language was genuine and original to the Old West?

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Most of the more common profane & obscene expressions we use today are centuries old.  However, 'MF' & 'CS' seem to be purely 20th Century & mid-20th at that.  I remember hearing male genitalia referred to as 'c..k' for the 1st time in Califonia in the mid-60s.  We used an entirely different term in Texas, & at times used 'c..k' to refer to female genitalia.  When I say centuries old, I mean just that.  The 'c' word used for female external genitalia, usually considered purely Anglo-Saxon from its extensive use by the peasant gardener in LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER, actually derives from 'cuneus,' the Latin word for 'wedge.'

[Murray A. Gewirtz]

I'm still trying to figure out where the appellation "hoopleheads" came from.

[patrick mark pazen]

Well heck I.ll be darned

[David Lambert]

Charley, according to dictionary.com, 'CS' dates to the 1890s.

Murray, 'hoopleheads' was made up for the show.

[Daniel Buck]

Two excellent reference books:  The F Word (2009), Jesse Sheidlower (with a hilarious & appropriately profane foreword by Lewis Black), and An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Fowl Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World (2006) Geoffrey Hughes. 

Per Hughes, in 14th century England a royal household post, Master of the Revels, evolved from overseeing theater scenery to "licenser and censor of plays and stage performances."  Shakespeare and Ben Johnson (not of The Last Picture Show fame) both felt his wrath.  His censorious powers led to the growth of "minced oaths," oaths disguised so as to make them inoffensive.  In Henry IV, "'sblood" stood in for "God's blood."  The best, however, is "Godfrey Daniels" ("God damn them"), a minced oath much favored by W.C. Fields.

Dan

[Stan H]

Reading Estilline Bennett's "Old Deadwood Days" she points out that vulgar language was never used in the presence of ladies and children. I am sure the rowdy popluation used foul language, but only limited. Nothing like now days. ( I was raised with those rules)

Bullwackers were especially known for their colorfull language, but what would one expect, having to deal with a team of stubborn oxen.

 

 

[Daniel Buck]

Sheidlower's first published reference for mf is 1918, but if a term was seriously offensive, chances are it would be in use long before it was in print.  One 1918 reference is a bawdy ballad.  Hughes, who takes a more academic approach to these matters, traces the idea of mf back to the Greeks, Sophocles' Oediphus the King, for example, and notes that versions of mf appear in other languages -- probably, if Freud is correct, in all languages.  Dan

[Sue Cauhape]

Pardon my lack of academic citing, but I read somewhere that MF goes back as far as ancient Africa as well as other cultures (Greek, Roman, etc.) who worshipped (or cursed) goddesses and gods. The term referred to the act of raping the goddess, or Mother, as a way of appeasing one's lack of power in a matriarchal society.

[Daniel Buck]

Murray,

The only explanation for "hooplehead" I've seen is here

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hoo3.htm

The word is made-up word, an homage of sorts to Major Amos B. Hoople, the rarely employed, marginally useful, braggadocio husband of Martha Hoople, and reoccurring character in the comic panel "Our Boarding House," which Gene Ahern launched in 1921.

More here,

http://wikipedias.com/index.php/Our_Boarding_House

Our Boarding House was one of the my favorite comics of my youth.  Dan

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

I first started hearing MF in the late '50s, but it was probably in use among Blacks a whole lot earlier than that.  It was considered a 'Black' word in my youth, so White boys didn't use it.  A 'minced oath' variant was 'futhermucker,' which White boys did use.