Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Asked and answered

Thank you to the diligent BOBW reader who unearthed the following response to yesterday's query (courtesy of the OED online):

windf*cker
Obs.
[Cf. ?F*ckwind, a species of hawk. North.? (Halliwell).]
1. A name for the kestrel: cf. WINDHOVER.
1599 NASHE Lenten Stuffe 49 The kistrilles or windf*ckers that
filling themselues with winde, fly against the winde euermore.
2. fig. as a term of opprobrium.
1602 Narcissus MS. Rawl. Poet. 212, lf. 80, I tell you, my little
windf*ckers, had not a certaine melancholye ingendred with a nippinge
dolour overshadowed the sunne shine of my mirthe, I had beene I pre,
sequor, one of your consorte. 1609 B. JONSON Silent Wom. I. iv. (1620)
C3b, Did you euer heare such a Wind-f*cker, as this? c1611 CHAPMAN
Iliad Pref. A4, There is a certaine enuious Windf*cker, that houers vp
and downe, laboriously ingrossing al the air with his luxurious
ambition. a1616 BEAUM. & FL. Wit without M. IV. i, Husbands for Whores
and Bawdes, away you wind-suckers [sic ed. 1639].

Nota bene: BOBW does NOT condone the bowdlerization of vulgar terminology (Cf. Cheney, 2004), but we realize that some readers may be saddled with Internet filters and do not want to deprive them of access to the blog.
Now we must turn to Chapman's Iliad and figure out what the f*ck he was talking about...

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