first!

our man Chaucer was the first to use a large amount of English words, for the simple reason that he was one of the first major writers to writie in the queen's tongue, rather than some Latin Mumbo-Jumbo or Olde Germanice Gobbledegooke.

examining his writings more cloesly reveals a lot of semi-unpleasant truths. some of his poetry, for instance, indicates that he was an early goth... make that late goth, as the Goths predated him. okay, let's say early emo.

14 For sorwful imaginacioun
15 Is alway hoolly in my minde.
16 And wel ye wite, agaynes kynde
17 Hit were to liven in this wyse;
18 For nature wolde nat suffyse
19 To noon erthely creature
20 Not longe tyme to endure
21 Withoute slepe, and been in sorwe;
22 And I ne may, ne night ne morwe,
23 Slepe; and thus melancolye
24 And dreed I have for to dye,
25 Defaute of slepe and hevinesse
26 Hath sleyn my spirit of quiknesse

as we can see, he got a lot of those "first usage" medals through simple cheating, as he used any old spelling he could think of. such as "morwe", which clearly was an inspiration for Tolkien's Morwen. we'll have to get back to whether cheating or copying is the worst sin.

Source, for the poetry at least: wikisource.