THE MANY MEANINGS OF THE WORD "f**k"

[Torch 7.62]

THE MANY MEANINGS OF THE WORD "f**k"


Perhaps one of the most interesting and colorful words in the English
Language today is the word "F***". It is one of the magical words, which
just by its sound, can describe pain, pleasure, love and hate.
In language,"F***" falls into many grammatical categories. It can be used as a verb,
both transitive (John F***ed Mary) and intransitive (Mary was F***ed by John).

It can be an active verb (John really gives a F***) or a passive verb
(Mary really doesn't give a F***) or an adverb (Mary is F***ing interested in
John) and as a noun (Mary is a terrific F***). It can be used as an
adjective (Mary is F***ing beautiful).

As you can see, there are very few words with the versatility of "F***".

Besides its sexual connotations, this incredible word can be used to describe many situations:

Greetings.........."How the f**k are you"
Fraud................"I got f**ked by the car dealer"
Dismay.............."Oh f**k it"
Trouble............."Well, I guess I'm f**ked now"
Aggression........"f**k Me"
Disgust............."f**k You!"
Confusion........."What the f**k...?"
Difficulty..........."I don't understand this f**king business"
Despair............."f**ked again"
Incompetence...."He f**ked up everything"
Displeasure......."What the f**k is going on here?"
Lost................."Where the f**k are we?"
Disbelief..........."Unf**king believable!"
Retaliation........"Up your f**king ass!"
Denial.............."I didn't f**king do it."
Perplexity........."I don't know f**k about it."
Apathy............."Who gives a f**k anyway?"
Resignation......"Oh f**k it."
Derision..........."He f**ks up everything."
Suspicion........."Who the f**k are you?"
Panic..............."Lets get the f**k out of here."
Directions........."f**k off."
Disbelief..........."How the f**k did you do that?"

It can be used in anatomical description..."He's a f**king asshole!"
It can be used to tell time......................."It's Five f**king Thirty!"
It can be used in business......................"How did I wind up with this f**king job?"
It can be used maternal..........................as in "Motherf**ker"
It can be political.................................."f**k Bill Clinton"

[TimberWolf7.62]

I find it a very f**king handy word.

[FireDevil7.62]

Popular etymologies agree, unfortunately incorrectly, that this is an acronym meaning either Fornication Under Consent of the King or For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, the latter usually accompanying a story about how medieval prisoners were forced to wear this word on their clothing.

Deriving the etymology of this word is difficult, as it has been under a taboo for most of its existence and citations are rare. The earliest known use, according to American Heritage and Lighter, predates 1500 and is from a poem written in a mix of Latin and English and entitled Flen flyys. The relevant line reads:

Non sunt in celi quia fuccant uuiuys of heli.
Translated:

They [the monks] are not in heaven because they f**k the wives of Ely .
Fuccant is a pseudo-Latin word and in the original it is written in cipher to further disguise it.

Some sources cite an alleged use from 1278 as a personal name, John le f**ker, but this citation is questionable. No one has properly identified the document this name supposedly appears in and even if it is real, the name is likely a variant of fuker, a maker of cloth, fulcher, a soldier, or another similar word.

The earliest usage cite in the OED2 dates from 1503 and is in the form fukkit. The earliest cite of the current spelling is from 1535.

The word was not in common (published) use prior to the 1960s. Shakespeare did not use it, although he did hint at it for comic effect. In Merry Wives of Windsor (IV.i) he gives us the pun "focative case." In Henry V (IV.iv), the character Pistol threatens to "firk" a French soldier, a word meaning to strike, but commonly used as an Elizabethan euphemism for f**k. In the same play (III.iv), Princess Katherine confuses the English words foot and gown for the French foutre and coun (f**k and cunt, respectively) with comic results. Other poets did use the word, although it was far from common. Robert Burns, for example, used it in an unpublished manuscript.

The taboo was so strong that for 170 years, from 1795 to 1965, f**k did not appear in a single dictionary of the English language. In 1948, the publishers of The Naked and the Dead persuaded Norman Mailer to use the euphemism "fug" instead, resulting in Dorothy Parker's comment upon meeting Mailer: "So you're the man who can't spell f**k."

The root is undoubtedly Germanic, as it has cognates in other Northern European languages: Middle Dutch fokken meaning to thrust, to copulate with; dialectical Norwegian fukka meaning to copulate; and dialectical Swedish focka meaning to strike, push, copulate, and fock meaning penis. Both French and Italian have similar words, foutre and fottere respectively. These derive from the Latin futuere.

While these cognates exist, they are probably not the source of f**k, rather all these words probably come from a common root. Most of the early known usages of the English word come from Scotland, leading some scholars to believe that the word comes from Scandinavian sources. Others disagree, believing that the number of northern citations reflects that the taboo was weaker in Scotland and the north, resulting in more surviving usages. The fact that there are citations, albeit fewer of them, from southern England dating from the same period seems to bear out this latter theory.

There is also an elaborate explanation that has been circulating on the internet for some years regarding English archers, the Battle of Agincourt, and the phrase Pluck Yew! This explanation is a modern jest--a play on words. However, there may be a bit of truth to it. The British (it is virtually unknown in America) gesture of displaying the index and middle fingers with the back of the hand outwards (a reverse peace sign)--meaning the same as displaying the middle finger alone--may derive from the French practice of cutting the fingers off captured English archers. Archers would taunt the French on the battlefield with this gesture, showing they were intact and still dangerous. The pluck yew part is fancifully absurd. This is not the origin of the middle finger gesture, which is truly ancient, being referred to in classical Greek and Roman texts.

For more information on f**k and its usages, see The F Word, by Jesse Sheidlower, Random House, 1999, ISBN 0-375-70634-8. This is perhaps the most comprehensive treatment of the word available.