Nine Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Swear Words. Four-letter words have been around since the days of our forebears—and their forebears, too.
In Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing, a book out this month from Oxford University Press, medieval literature expert Melissa Mohr traces humans’ use of naughty language back to Roman times. NewsFeed asked Mohr what surprising tidbits readers might stumble upon amidst the expletives. Here are nine talking points from her opus for your next (presumably, pretty edgy) cocktail hour. (FROM THE MAGAZINE: Help! Grammar Ninja. Grammar Practice Park. Mad Libs. Ww1.thesauraus. Vocabulary.com - Learn Words - English Dictionary.