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'Fart' is an English word which refers to flatulence. The word "fart" is generally considered unsuitable in a formal environment by modern English speakers, and it may be considered vulgar or offensive in some environments. ''Fart'' can be used as a noun or a verb. It can be described as "breaking wind" or "letting it rip".

Contents

Usage history

Early usage

Modern usage

See also

References

Usage history

Early usage

A well known usage of the fart in Middle English occurs in Chaucer's "Miller's Tale" (one of the ''Canterbury Tales''). In the tale (which is told by a bawdy miller as a group of pilgrims travel to Canterbury), Absolon has already been tricked into kissing Alison's bottom when he is expecting to kiss her face. Her boyfriend Nicholas hangs his buttocks out of a window, hoping to trick Absolon into kissing his arse in turn and farts in the face of his rival Absolon.^[1] Absolon is humiliated by this gesture but has come equipped for revenge and sears Nicholas's rear with a red-hot poker.The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives Chaucer's usage (1386) as its earliest citation for the noun form of the word, though it provides an earlier (1250) citation for the verb form.^[2]
The fart is frequently available (often through puns on the word "wind") as a comparison for undesirable speech or writing, as in these lines from an epistle by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester:

Modern usage

By the early twentieth century, the word fart had come to be considered rather vulgar in most English-speaking cultures. For a long time, the word was forbidden from the public airwaves in the United States by the FCC. While not one of George Carlin's original seven dirty words, he noted in a later routine that the word ''fart'' (along with ''turd'' and ''twat''), ought to be added to "the list" of words that were not acceptable (for broadcast) in any context (as opposed to words such as ''ass'', ''cock'' or ''pussy'' which have non-offensive meanings).^[3]
With the rise of cable television and changing social mores in general, the word fart is (in 2007) frequently heard in the broadcast media. It is also now found in such places as children's literature, such as the ''Walter the Farting Dog'' series of children's books, Walter Munsch's ''Good Families Don't'' and ''The Gas We Pass'' by Shinta Cho. While still considered impolite in some social contexts, much of the stigma surrounding the word has disappeared.

See also

★ U.S. Navy slang for examples.

References

1. "This nicholas anon leet fle a fart, / As greet as it had been a thonder-dent" (''The Miller's Tale'' 3806-3807; available online at etext.lib.virginia.edu).
2. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' online (http://dictionary.oed.com): entries for ''fart, n.'' and ''fart, v.''
3. http://www.georgecarlin.com/dirty/dirty3.html


★ ''Fecal Matters in Early Modern Literature and Art: Studies in Skeetology''. J Persels, R Ganim - 2004 (Chap. 1: The Honorable Art of Farting in Continental Renaissance) [1]