Jesse Sheidlower—an old acquaintance from our days on echonyc—with a welcome announcement a couple of weeks ago on Mastodon:

News: the 4th edition of The F-Word is coming out in two weeks from Oxford UP! Everything you could want to know about the word fuck.

This is a major revision: 500 pages with 150 new entries, 150 antedatings, & 2,500 new quotations.[…]

I already own the second edition, purchased in 2001, and it was one of the most fun reads I’ve ever had. I laughed my fucking ass off thumbing through it, all the while learning about my most-used expletive. I pre-ordered the fourth edition immediately, and it arrived today. Alas, it’s 25-fucking-hundred miles away from me, so I’ve had fuck-all chance to read it. Fuck.

Here’s Sheidlower’s description of the book:

The F-Word is a historical dictionary devoted to the word fuck, including all parts of speech, compounds, phrases, and certain euphemisms. A “historical dictionary” means that, like the Oxford English Dictionary, it illustrates every sense of every entry with quotations, from the earliest that can be found to a (relatively) recent example, showing exactly how the word has been used throughout history.

And:

This new, fourth edition (2024) is not just a minor update but a comprehensive revision. The fourth edition includes over 2,500 new quotations; over 150 new entries; and over 150 antedatings—earlier examples of existing entries, improving our understanding of the word’s development. Major new discoveries push back the known history of fuck by almost 200 years.

Sheidlower was an editor for the OED, so he understands comprehensive dictionaries, including the importance of antedating entries:

Many antedatings represent significant improvements in our knowledge of the word's history. The expression for fuck's sake, previously first recorded in 1943, is now known from 1922; fucked 'crazy' has been improved from 1971 to 1951, fuckload from 1984 to 1970, headfuck 'something that causes confusion' from 1993 to 1976, ratfuck 'a frenetic social event' from 1979 to 1969. In particular, research into early erotica has resulted in a number of major antedatings. The noun ass-fuck, previously first found in 1940, is now recorded in 1874; dogfuck has been improved from 1980 to 1867, face-fuck from 1972 to 1899, fuckstick 'the penis' from 1973 to 1904, mouth fuck from 1954 to 1868, and tongue fuck from 1974 to 1902.

It’ll be fucking great. I hope it sells a fuckton.