What are some historical slang terms for having sex? The surviving overview of lexicographer Jonathon Green’s timeline says its English-language chart for sexual intercourse reaches back to 1351—but it does not identify the term at that date. That matters: a first recorded use is evidence that a word was in use by then, not proof of when it was invented.
What the 1351 date means—and what it does not
Lauren Davis’s 2014 overview of Green’s timelines reports that the chart for slang terms meaning sexual intercourse stretches back to 1351. The accessible article does not name the entry, so it is not possible to responsibly give that phrase here. Nor does the date establish that a term was coined in 1351: it marks a reported point in the surviving record.
The chart concerns English-language slang for intercourse. Green also assembled separate timelines for oral sex and anal intercourse, and for orgasms, bodily fluids and contraception. Those are distinct categories; a phrase on one chart should not automatically be treated as a synonym for intercourse. Gizmodo’s 2014 overview describes the charts and their scope.
What the record can tell us about historical sexual language
Indirect language predates the modern sense of “intercourse”
An Oxford English Dictionary search-result excerpt gives “the service of Venus” as a euphemistic sense of “company” around c1350. It illustrates how indirect language could refer to sex, but it is not established as Green’s 1351 chart entry. The word “intercourse” itself first referred to communication and trade; the sexual sense came later. The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the phrase “sexual intercourse” to 1771 in its account of the word’s history. Online Etymology Dictionary: “intercourse”.
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Written records of obscenity are not the same as origins
The Online Etymology Dictionary records written forms of “fuck” in the early sixteenth century, including “fukkit” in 1503 and the present spelling in 1535. Its entry also describes a claim that an English court manuscript from 1310 contains a recent find of the verb, while presenting competing theories and uncertainty about the word’s origin. These records do not connect the word to the 1351 chart entry, and a dated written example cannot by itself establish when a word began circulating. Online Etymology Dictionary: “fuck”.
Why historical slang is difficult to date
Slang often circulates in speech before anyone writes it down, and surviving texts are uneven evidence of everyday use. A single dated citation can establish that a form was recorded by a particular time; it cannot show how common it was, who used it, or whether it had already been in circulation for years. Meanings can also shift, and a familiar form may be reinvented in a new sense.
As linguist and lexicographer Ben Zimmer told TIME, “Slang is notoriously difficult to track historically, because slang is very often the kind of language that resists standard treatment.” That is why historical timelines are best read as maps of documented usage rather than complete accounts of how people spoke. TIME’s 2018 discussion of slang and Green’s dictionary explores those challenges.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Green’s dictionary and the scale of the vocabulary
Jonathon Green is a linguist and the author of Green’s Dictionary of Slang, the reference work behind the timeline project. TIME reported in 2016 that the dictionary included 1,740 terms for sexual intercourse. That is a figure reported at the time, not a verified current total. In 2018, TIME reported that the online dictionary contained more than 135,000 words and phrases; that, too, is a period-specific count rather than a current database total. TIME’s 2016 article on the online dictionary.
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For readers who want to follow a term beyond a timeline, Green’s Dictionary of Slang is a useful further reference: its dated citations can provide context that a bare “first known use” date cannot. The figures above describe what TIME reported in 2016 and 2018, respectively, rather than promising the present scope of the work.
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