Everything about "pox leber" as a minced oath, and an earlier source.
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(18-12-2025, 12:55 PM)Koen G wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I feel like a broken record here, but context matters.

Of course, absolutely!

While I am reasonably confident that 'poxleber' is indeed what it says on the MS, we don't yet know the context in the MS. This thread helps to find possibilities. 

The first reasonable explanation that I know of was at the 2012 Mondragone event, where it was not brought in connection with a (minced) swear word, but with a recipe. He argued that the marginal drawing of an animal is similar enough to the Aries drawings to consider it a goat (which was not really considered before that).

The swear word connection was made later, by Rich on his blog, arguing that the first use of this was by Hans Sachs, so the word would be anachronistic. Already in his blog comments, people identified earlier examples (but still late for the Voynich MS). By now, more and more examples have been found, typically for minced swear words. (I mentioned the example of Folz in recognition of the word 'Everything' in the thread title).
Your example is from before(?) 1450. The anachronistic aspect no longer applies.

So what is the word doing there, on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ?
It seems we should now assume that it could be either case.
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RE: Everything about "pox leber" as a minced oath, and an earlier source. - by ReneZ - 19-12-2025, 12:12 AM

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