The above image is doing the rounds of Facebook, Twitter, Jezebel, Imgur, and elsewhere, although it appears it was first published online about four years ago and it has reappeared on numerous different sites ever since.

Older incarnations of this document claim it comes from New Orleans, but the current viral version of this document purports to be “a menu from a London brothel dating back to 1912″; a house of ill repute reputedly owned by one Mrs. F.A. Tasse. It’s full of dirty words and acts, leading most people to read it surreptitiously, have a giggle, and then close the page quickly before their colleagues see it. However, if you read it closely there are a more than a few things that are fishy about the language…

For starters, the prices are listed in dollars and cents although in 1912, the English paid for their painted women in pounds, shillings, and pence. The U.K. didn’t decimalize their currency until 1971.

Furthermore, the dialect in the “menu” is written in American English and there are numerous errors. “Parlors” would be spelled as “parlours”. “Ass hole” would read “arsehole”. “Jerk you off” and “jack yourself off” would be “toss off” or “wank off”. “Jerk off” isn’t attested to until 1916 – feasibly, it may have been around in 1912, but probably not used in London.

There are several anachronisms in the document, even though they’ve tried to make the menu sound “old” by using words and phrases like “goose quill” and “diddling” (although the latter term refers to women primarily). “No discount for cash” is a modern phrase. “Poop” has been around since the 18th century, but “poop hole” is a relatively new slang term from the U.S. “Self-starter” wasn’t used to refer to people until the 1960s.

Tellingly, there is no Twenty-Second Street in London. Naming streets or avenues after numbers is an American convention.

Most of all, F.A. Tasse might kinda be read as “FAT ass”…

It would be interesting to have a historian tear the menu apart too, but from a linguistic perspective, this document is clearly a hoax, but not a very good one!

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