Words currently considered curse words or profanity were common parlance in medieval English.
[18] In the Elizabethan era, some playwrights, like
Shakespeare, largely avoided direct use of these words, but others, like
Ben Jonson, did use them in his plays.
[19] The word
fuck was likely first used in English (borrowed) in the 15th century, though the use of
shit in English is much older, rooted in the Proto-Germanic word
skit-, then evolved in
Middle English to the word
schitte, meaning excrement, and
shiten, to defecate. Another profanity,
damn, has its origins in Latin, with the word
damnum meaning 'to damage, hurt or harm'.
[20]