What is it about?
Swearwords are not something we normally associate with ancient Egypt, when we think of hieroglyphic inscriptions and papyrus scrolls. However, swearwords are attested throughout Egyptian antiquity, in both literary and everyday-life texts, as this study shows. Particular attention is here dedicated to the verb "nek", the Egyptian equivalent of the English F-word, and to its use in insults targeting men who have sex with men, especially as the receiving party of penetration (in today's parlance, "bottom-shaming").
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Why is it important?
Moving from a linguistic analysis to a wider socio-cultural study, the article reveals the value that F-word-based insults and bottom-shaming profanities have for the modern historian, as they shed light on the history of sexuality and on perceptions of gender and masculinity in ancient Egypt. This article will be of interest not only to Egyptologists and social historians of antiquity, but also to scholars of ancient sexuality, gender, and queer studies.
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This page is a summary of: A Whoremonger or a Bottom? The F-word, Cursing, and Bottom-shaming in an Ancient Egyptian Literary Text (P. Wien khm äs 3877, col. III/3), January 2026, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004744974_023.
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