The many uses of the word fuck

Not to be confused with Funk.

Fuck is English-language profanity which often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to around 1475 CE.^[1] In modern usage, the term fuck and its derivatives (such as fucker and fucking) are used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an interjection or an adverb. There are many common phrases that employ the word as well as compounds that incorporate it, such as motherfucker, fuckwit, fuckup, fucknut, fucktard, and fuck off.

Offensiveness

It is unclear whether the word has always been considered a pejorative or, if not, when it first came to be used to describe (often in an extremely angry, hostile or belligerent manner) unpleasant circumstances or people in an intentionally offensive way, such as in the term motherfucker, one of its more common usages in some parts of the English-speaking world. Some English-speaking countries censor it on television and radio. Andrea Millwood Hargrave’s 2000 study of the attitudes of the British public found that fuck was considered the third-most-severe profanity, and its derivative motherfucker second. Cunt was considered the most severe.^[2]

Nevertheless, the word has increasingly become less of a pejorative and more publicly acceptable, an example of the «dysphemism treadmill» or semantic drift known as melioration, wherein former pejoratives become inoffensive and commonplace.^[3][4] Because of its increasing usage in the public forum, in 2005 the word was included for the first time as one of three vulgarities in The Canadian Press’s Canadian Press Caps and Spelling guide. Journalists were advised to refrain from censoring the word but use it sparingly and only when its inclusion was essential to the story.^[5] According to linguist Pamela Hobbs, «notwithstanding its increasing public use, enduring cultural models that inform our beliefs about the nature of sexuality and sexual acts preserve its status as a vile utterance that continues to inspire moral outrage.» Hobbs considers users rather than usage of the word and sub-divides users into «non-users», for whom «the word belongs to a set of taboo words, the very utterance of which constitutes an affront, and any use of the word, regardless of its form (verb, adjective, adverb, etc.) or meaning (literal or metaphorical) evokes the core sexual meanings and associated sexual imagery that motivate the taboo.»; and «users», for whom «metaphorical uses of the word fuck no more evoke images of sexual intercourse than a ten-year-old’s ‘My mom’ll kill me if she finds out’ evokes images of murder,» so that the «criteria of taboo are missing.»^[6]

Etymology

Germanic cognates

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the ultimate etymology is uncertain, but that the word is «probably cognate» with a number of Germanic words with meanings involving striking, rubbing and having sex or is derivative of the Old French word that meant ‘to have sex’.^[7]

The word has probable cognates in other Germanic languages, such as German ficken (‘to fuck’); Dutch fokken (‘to breed’, ‘to beget’); Afrikaans fok (‘to fuck’);^[8] Icelandic fokka (‘to mess around’, ‘to rush’);^[9] dialectal Norwegian fukka (‘to copulate’); and dialectal Swedish focka (‘to strike’, ‘to copulate’) and fock (‘penis’).^[7] This points to a possible etymology where Common Germanic *fuk(k)ōn-from the verbal root *fug- (‘to blow’)^[9] comes from an Indo-European root *peuk-, or *peuĝ- (‘to strike’),^[10] cognate with non-Germanic words such as Latin pugno (‘I fight’) or pugnus (‘fist’).^[7] By application of Grimm’s law, this hypothetical root also has the Pre-Germanic form *pug-néh₂— (»to blow’),^[9] which is the etymon of, amongst others, Dutch fok(zeil) (‘foresail’).^[11] There is a theory that fuck is most likely derived from German or Dutch roots, and is probably not derived from an Old English root.^[12]

False etymologies

One reason that the word fuck is so hard to trace etymologically is that it was used far more extensively in common speech than in easily traceable written forms. There are multiple urban legends that advance false etymologies declaring the word to be an acronym. One of these urban legends is that the word fuck came from Irish law. If a couple was caught committing adultery, the two would be punished «For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge In the Nude», with FUCKIN written on the stocks above to denote the crime. A variant misconception alleges church clerks to have recorded the crime of «Forbidden Use of Carnal Knowledge». Another is that of a royal permission granted in the Middle Ages: the Black Death and the scarcity of uncontaminated resources drove towns to control both human interactions and population growth. Supposedly many towns required permission to intermingle or to make babies. Hence, no couple could do either without royal permission (usually from a local magistrate or lord) which required placing a sign visible from the road that said Fornicating Under Consent of King, which was later shortened to FUCK. This story is hard to document, has persisted in oral and literary traditions for many years, but has been proven false.^[13]

A false etymology first made popular on the radio show Car Talk says that the phrase fuck you derives from pluck yew in connection with a misconception regarding the origins of the V sign. This misconception states that English archers believed that those who were captured by the French had their index and middle fingers cut off so that they could no longer operate their longbows, and that the V sign was used by uncaptured and victorious archers in a display of defiance against the French. The addition of the phrase fuck you to the misconception came when it was claimed that the English yelled that they could still pluck yew, (yew wood being the preferred material for longbows at the time), a phrase that evolved into the modern fuck you.^[12] In any event, the word fuck has been in use far too long for some of these supposed origins to be possible. Since no such acronym was ever recorded before the 1960s according to the lexicographical work The F-Word, such claims create at best a so-called «backronym».^[14]

Grammar

In terms of its parts of speech, fuck has a very flexible role in English grammar, functioning as both a transitive and intransitive verb, and as an adjective, adverb, noun, and interjection.^[7][15]

Although the word itself is used in its literal sense to refer to sexual intercourse, its most common usage is figurative—to indicate the speaker’s strong sentiment and to offend or shock the listener.^[16] Linguist Geoffrey Hughes found eight distinct usages for English curse words, and fuck can apply to each. For example, it fits in the «curse» sense (fuck you!), as well as the «personal» sense (You fucker).^[17] In the Oxford English Dictionary, more than a hundred different senses, usages and collocations (like fuck around, fuck with s.o., fuck you, fuck me, fuck it) are identified for fuck, its derived forms (like fucker, fuckee, fuckability), and compounds with fuck (e.g. fuckfest, fuckhole, fuckface).^[8]

Early usage

In 2015, Dr. Paul Booth argued he had found «(possibly) the earliest known use of the word ‘fuck’ that clearly has a sexual connotation»: in English court records of 1310–11, a man local to Chester is referred to as «Roger Fuckebythenavele», probably a nickname. «Either this refers to an inexperienced copulator, referring to someone trying to have sex with the navel, or it’s a rather extravagant explanation for a dimwit, someone so stupid they think that this is the way to have sex», says Booth.^{[18][19][20][21]} An earlier name, that of John le Fucker recorded in 1278, has been the subject of debate, but is thought by many philologists to have had some separate and non-sexual origin.^[22]

Otherwise, the usually accepted first known occurrence of the word is found in code in a poem in a mixture of Latin and English composed in the 15th century. The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title, «Flen flyys», from the first words of its opening line, Flen, flyys, and freris (‘Fleas, flies, and friars’). The line that contains fuck reads Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk. Deciphering the phrase gxddbou xxkxzt pg ifmk, here by replacing each letter by the previous letter in alphabetical order, as the English alphabet was then, yields the macaronic non sunt in coeli, quia fuccant vvivys of heli, which translated means, ‘They are not in heaven, because they fuck the women of Ely’. The phrase was probably encoded because it accused monks of breaking their vows of celibacy;^[12] it is uncertain to what extent the word fuck was considered acceptable at the time. The stem of fuccant is an English word used as Latin.^[23] In the Middle English of this poem, the term wife was still used generically for ‘woman’.^{[‡ 1]}

William Dunbar’s 1503 poem «Brash of Wowing» includes the lines: «Yit be his feiris he wald haue fukkit: / Ye brek my hairt, my bony ane» (ll. 13–14).^[24]

The oldest occurrence of the word in adjectival form (which implies use of the verb) in English comes from the margins of a 1528 manuscript copy of Cicero’s De Officiis. A monk had scrawled in the margin notes, «fuckin Abbot». Whether the monk meant the word literally, to accuse this abbott of «questionable monastic morals», or whether he used it «as an intensifier, to convey his extreme dismay» is unclear.^[25]

John Florio’s 1598 Italian–English dictionary, A Worlde of Wordes, included the term, along with several now-archaic, but then-vulgar synonyms, in this definition:

• Fottere: To jape, to sard, to fucke, to swive, to occupy.^[17]

Of these, «occupy» and «jape» still survive as verbs, though with less profane meanings, while «sard» was a descendant of the Anglo-Saxon verb seordan (or seorðan, ON serða), to copulate; and «swive» had derived from earlier swīfan, to revolve i.e. to swivel (compare modern-day «screw»). As late as the 18th century, the verb occupy was seldom used in print because it carried sexual overtones.^{[26][‡ 2]}

A 1790 poem by St. George Tucker has a father upset with his bookish son say «I’d not give [a fuck] for all you’ve read». Originally printed as «I’d not give —— for all you’ve read», scholars agree that the words a fuck were removed, making the poem the first recorded instance of the now-common phrase I don’t give a fuck.^[27]

Farmer and Henley’s 1893 dictionary of slang notes both the adverbial and adjectival forms of fuck as similar to but «more violent» than bloody and indicating extreme insult, respectively.^[16]

Modern usage

The modern usage and flexibility of fuck was established by the mid-to-late 19th century, and has been fairly stable since.^[16] Most literally, to fuck is to have sex, but it is also used as a more general expletive or intensifier.^{[‡ 3]}

Insertion of the trochaic word fucking can also be used as an exercise for diagnosing the cadence of an English-language word. This is the use of fuck or more specifically fucking as an infix, or more properly, a tmesis (see expletive infixation). For example, the word in-fucking-credible sounds acceptable to the English ear, and is in fairly common use, while *incred-fucking-ible would sound very clumsy (though, depending on the context, this might be perceived as a humorous improvisation of the word). Abso-fucking-lutely and motherfucking are also common uses of fuck as an affix.^[28] While neither dysphemistic nor connected to the sexual connotations of the word, even the vacuous usages are considered offensive and gratuitous, such as This is fucking awesome!^{[‡ 3]} Fuck has colloquial usage as a verb, adverb, adjective, conjunction, interjection, noun, and pronoun.^[29]

The word fuck is a component of many acronyms, some of which—like SNAFU (Situation Normal: All Fucked Up) and FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition)—date as far back as World War II.^[30] MILF (Mother I’d Like to Fuck) and variations of the first letter are widely seen in pornographic contexts.^{[‡ 4]} Many more recent coinages, such as the shorthand WTF? for ‘what the fuck’,^{[‡ 5]} STFU for ‘shut the fuck up’,^{[‡ 6]} or FML for ‘fuck my life’,^{[‡ 7]} have been widely extant on the Internet, and may count as examples of internet memes. Many acronyms will also have an F or MF added to increase emphasis; for example, OMG (‘oh my God’) becomes OMFG (‘oh my fucking God’). Abbreviations involving fuck can be considered less offensive than fuck itself.^[31] Although the word is proclaimed vulgar, several comedians rely on fuck for comedic routines. George Carlin created several literary works based upon the word, including his routine «seven dirty words»—words that were bleep censored on US television.^[32]

Examples of more recent usage

In 1928, English writer D. H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover gained notoriety for its frequent use of the words fuck and fucking.^[33] The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger featured the use of fuck you in print. First published in the United States in 1951, the novel remains controversial to this day due in part to its use of the word,^[34] standing at number 13 for the most banned books from 1990 to 2000 according to the American Library Association.^[35]

The first documented use of the word fuck on live British television has been attributed to theatre critic Kenneth Tynan in 1965, though it has been claimed Irish playwright Brendan Behan used the word on Panorama in 1956 or the man who painted the railings on Stranmillis Embankment alongside the River Lagan in Belfast, who in 1959 told Ulster TV’s teatime magazine programme Roundabout that his job was «fucking boring».^[36] The Bill Grundy incident was a controversy that ensued in 1976 when Today host Bill Grundy interviewed the Sex Pistols, after guitarist Steve Jones called Grundy a «dirty fucker» and a «fucking rotter».^[37]

The word began to break into cinema when it was uttered once in the film Vapor (1963) and in two Andy Warhol films – Poor Little Rich Girl (1965) and My Hustler (1965),^[38] and later in each of two 1967 British releases, Ulysses and I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname. It was used several times in the 1969 British film Bronco Bullfrog.^[39] According to director Robert Altman, the first time the word fuck was used in a major American studio film was in 1970’s M*A*S*H, spoken by Painless during the football match at the end of the film.^[40]

Use in politics

Fuck is not widely used in politics, and the use of the word by politicians often produces controversy. Some events include:

• In 1965, US President Lyndon B. Johnson said to the Greek ambassador Alexandros Matsas when he objected to American plans in Cyprus, «Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fellows continue itching the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephant’s trunk, whacked good».^[41][42]
• Former British Secretary of State for Defence Denis Healey reported that the penultimate High Commissioner of Aden (1965–1967), Sir Richard Turnbull, stated that, «When the British Empire finally sinks beneath the waves of history, it will leave behind it only two memorials: one is the game of Association Football and the other is the expression ‘Fuck Off’.»^[43]
• During debate in February 1971 in the House of Commons of Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau mouthed the words «fuck off» at Conservative MP John Lundrigan, while Lundrigan made some comments about unemployment. Afterward, when asked by a television reporter what he had been thinking, Trudeau famously replied: «What is the nature of your thoughts, gentlemen, when you say ‘fuddle duddle’ or something like that?». «Fuddle duddle» consequently became a catchphrase in Canadian media associated with Trudeau.^[44]
• The first accepted modern use in the British House of Commons came in 1982 when Reg Race, Labour MP for Wood Green, referred to adverts placed in local newsagents by prostitutes which read «Phone them and fuck them.» Hansard, the full record of debates, printed «F*** them», but even this euphemism was deprecated by the Speaker, George Thomas.^[45]
• During the George W. Bush presidency, a vehicular bumper sticker with the words Buck Fush (a spoonerism of «Fuck Bush») gained some popularity in the US.^[46]
• In June 2004, US Vice President Dick Cheney told Democratic senator Patrick Leahy, «Go fuck yourself.» Coincidentally, Cheney’s outburst occurred on the same day that the Defense of Decency Act was passed in the Senate.^[47]
• In February 2006, Premier of the Australian state of New South Wales Morris Iemma, while awaiting the start of a Council of Australian Governments media conference in Canberra, was chatting to Victorian Premier Steve Bracks. Not realizing microphones were recording, he said, «Today? This fuckwit who’s the new CEO of the Cross City Tunnel has … been saying what controversy? There is no controversy.»^[48] The exchange referred to the newly appointed CEO of the recently opened Cross City Tunnel toll road within Sydney.
• In 2007, U.S. Senator John Cornyn objected to John McCain’s perceived intrusion upon a Senate meeting on immigration, saying, «Wait a second here. I’ve been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You’re out of line.» McCain replied «Fuck you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room.»^[49]
• In April 2007, New Zealand Education Minister Steve Maharey said «fuck you» to a fellow MP during parliamentary question time. He apologized shortly afterwards.^[50]
• In December 2008, recorded telephone conversations revealed Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich trying to «sell» an appointment to the Senate seat that Barack Obama resigned after being elected president. In the phone conversation, Blagojevich said in reference to his power to appoint a new senator, «I’ve got this thing and it’s fucking golden and I’m just not giving it up for fuckin’ nothing.» In the recorded conversations, Blagojevich also referred to Obama as a «motherfucker» and repeatedly said, «fuck him». When speaking of the Obama administration’s request that Valerie Jarrett be appointed as Obama’s replacement, Blagojevich complained, «They’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them.» Blagojevich also said Tribune Company ownership should be told to «fire those fuckers» in reference to Chicago Tribune editors critical of him.^[51]
• In December 2009 in Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Irish Parliament), Paul Gogarty responded to heckles from Emmet Stagg with the outburst, «With all due respect, in the most unparliamentary language, fuck you, Deputy Stagg. Fuck you.»^[52][53] Gogarty immediately withdrew the remarks and later made a personal statement of apology.^[52] Reporting of the outburst quickly spread by media and the Internet.^[53] A subcommittee of the Dáil’s standing committee on procedure and privilege produced a 28-page report on the incident.^[52]
• On March 23, 2010, US Vice President Joe Biden whispered into President Barack Obama’s ear, «This is a big fucking deal» when referring to the US health care reform bill. His words were picked up by microphones and video.^[54]
• On May 3, 2010, Canadian senator Nancy Ruth advised representatives of women’s groups to «shut the fuck up» on access to abortion, in the run-up to the 36th G8 summit.^[55]
• In late 2012, the then-US House Speaker John Boehner was visiting the White House, where he saw then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the lobby. Boehner was under great stress about the impending fiscal cliff, and Reid had also accused him of running a «dictatorship» in the house. Boehner saw Harry Reid, pointed his finger at him, and told him, «Go fuck yourself!» Reid replied by saying, «What are you talking about?» Boehner then repeated what he had told him and left.^{[better source needed]}
• In late 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reacted to the European Parliament’s criticism over the prevalence of unsolved extrajudicial killings which occurred during his «War on Drugs» by lashing out at EU politicians, claiming that they were «hypocrites» whose colonial-era ancestors had killed «thousands» of Arabs and other peoples during the colonial period.^[56] Upon making an obscene hand gesture, Duterte stated that he told EU politicians, «When I read the EU condemnation I told them ‘fuck you.’ You are only doing it to atone for your own sins» and «They do not want a safe Philippines. They want it to be ruled by criminals. Oh, well, I’m sorry. That is your idiotic view».^[57] Duterte also said, in response to growing international criticism, the «EU now has the gall to condemn me. I repeat it, fuck you.»^[58]
• On June 10, 2018, Robert De Niro sparked controversy during the 72nd Tony Awards as he cursed US President Donald Trump with the word during the live broadcast. He started with the sentence: «I’m gonna say one thing: Fuck Trump.» He clenched his two fists in the air, and ended his remarks by saying «It’s no longer down with Trump, it’s fuck Trump!» He received a standing ovation from the audience, which was mostly celebrities.^[59][60][61]
• On August 5, 2019, Beto O’Rourke after learning of a mass shooting in his home town of El Paso, Texas stated «He’s been calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. I don’t know, like, members of the press, what the fuck?» referring to Donald Trump when asked for his reaction to the shooting.^[62]
• During a virtual live telecast Senate hearing on August 21, 2020, Senator Tom Carper shouted: «Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!» over a video chat that was being broadcast nationwide.^[63]
• During his October 9, 2020 appearance on The Rush Limbaugh Show, US President Donald Trump stated in a threat to Iran, «If you fuck around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before.»^[64]
• In 2021, «Let’s Go Brandon» became a political slogan and internet meme used as a euphemism for «Fuck Joe Biden», the president of the United States.
• In 2022, President Joe Biden said to the mayor of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, «No one fucks with a Biden,» to which Mayor Ray Murphey responded, «Yeah, you’re goddamn right.»^[65]

Use in marketing

In April 1997, clothing retailer French Connection began branding their clothes with fcuk (usually written in lowercase), stating it was an acronym for «French Connection United Kingdom». Its similarity to the word fuck caused controversy.^[66] French Connection produced a range of T-shirts with messages such as «fcuk this», «hot as fcuk», «cool as fcuk», «fcuk fashion», etc.^[67]

In 2009, the European Union’s OHIM trade marks agency disallowed a German brewery to market a beer called «Fucking Hell». They sued, and on March 26, 2010 got permission to market the beer. The company argued that it was actually named after the Austrian village of Fucking (now spelled Fugging) and the German term for light beer, hell (which is simply the word for «light-coloured»).^[68]

Iancu v. Brunetti is a United States Supreme Court case in which the owner of the clothing brand FUCT (supposedly standing for «Friends U Can’t Trust») sued the Patent and Trademark Office, which refused to trademark the name for being «scandalous» under the Lanham Act.^[69] The Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that a provision in 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a) of the Act, denying registration to any trademarks seen as consisting of immoral or scandalous matter, was an unconstitutional restriction of applicants’ freedom of speech.^[70]

Band names

The word fuck has been used in a number of band names, such as Fucked Up, generally based on common compounds. Many of these bands fall into the genres of punk and metal, while some fall into the categories of electronic rock and pop, such as Holy Fuck^[71] and Fuck Buttons^[72]

F-bomb

The phrase dropping an F-bomb usually refers to the unanticipated use of the word fuck in an unexpected setting, such as public media, a play on the nickname for the hydrogen bomb (the «H-bomb»)^{[‡ 8]} and the shock value that using the word fuck in discourse carries. The term was first reported in a newspaper (Newsday) in 1988 when Hall of Fame baseball catcher Gary Carter used it.^[73] In 2012 it was listed, for the first time, in the mainstream Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.^[74]

Censorship

In the United States, the word is frequently edited out of music and films when broadcast on TV, such as in the film The Big Lebowski, when John Goodman’s character repeatedly yells, «This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass». It was censored on television as «This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps.»^[75]

Still, in 1971, the US Supreme Court decided that the public display of fuck is protected under the First and Fourteenth amendments and cannot be made a criminal offense. In 1968, Paul Robert Cohen had been convicted of disturbing the peace for wearing a jacket with the slogan «Fuck the Draft» (in a reference to conscription in the Vietnam War). The conviction was upheld by the court of appeals and overturned by the Supreme Court in Cohen v. California.^[76]

Common alternatives

In conversation or writing, reference to or use of the word fuck may be replaced by any of many alternative words or phrases, including the F-word or the F-bomb (a play on A-bomb and H-bomb), or simply, eff or f (as in What the eff/F or You effing/f’ing fool). Also, there are many commonly used substitutes, such as flipping, frigging, fricking, freaking, feck, fudge, flaming, forget or any of a number of similar-sounding nonsense words. In print, there are alternatives such as, F***, F––k, etc.; or a string of non-alphanumeric characters, for example, @$#*%! and similar (especially favored in comic books).^[77]

A replacement word that was used mainly on Usenet newsgroups is fsck, derived from the name of the Unix file system checking utility.^[78][79]

See also

• Army creole
• The finger, a related hand gesture
• Four-letter word
• Harcourt interpolation
• List of films that most frequently use the word «fuck»
• List of common false etymologies of English words
• Madonna on Late Show with David Letterman in 1994
• Profanity
• Sexual slang

References

Dictionaries

Sources

External links

«Fuck» is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed.

«Fuck» can be used as a verb, adverb, adjective, imperative, interjection, and noun. It has various metaphorical meanings. To be «fucked» can mean to be cheated (e.g., «I got fucked by a scam artist»), or to be broken or ruined (e.g., «my computer is fucked») as well as to be sexually penetrated. As a noun «a fuck» or «a fucker» may describe a contemptible person. «A fuck» may mean an act of copulation. The word can be used as an interjection, and its participle is sometimes used as a strong (not necessarily negative) emphatic. The verb to fuck may be used transitively or intransitively, and it appears in compounds, including fuck off, fuck up, fuck you, and fuck with. In less explicit usages (but still regarded as vulgar), fuck or fuck with can mean to mess around, or to deal with unfairly or harshly. In a phrase such as «don’t give a fuck», the word is the equivalent of «damn», in the sense of something having little value. In «what the fuck?!», it serves merely as an intensive. If something is very abnormal or annoying, «This is fucked up!» may be said.

Offensiveness

The word’s use is considered obscene in social contexts, but may be common in informal and domestic situations. It is unclear whether the word has always been considered vulgar, and if not, when it first came to be used to describe (often in an extremely angry, hostile or belligerent manner) unpleasant circumstances or people in an intentionally offensive way, such as in the term motherfucker, one of its more common usages in some parts of the English-speaking world. In the modern English-speaking world, the word fuck is often considered highly offensive. Most English-speaking countries censor it on television and radio. A study of the attitudes of the British public found that fuck was considered the third most severe profanity and its derivative motherfucker second. Cunt was considered the most severe (Hargrave, 2000). Some have argued that the prolific usage of the word fuck has de-vulgarized it, an example of the «dysphemism treadmill». Despite its offensive nature, the word is common in popular usage.

The highly profane^{[citation needed]} term remains a taboo word to many people in English-speaking countries, while others feel the word remains inappropriate in social etiquette when used by a male in the presence of women. The word also carries a sacrilegious connotation to some.^{[citation needed]} Many religious people oppose the use of profane, vulgar, and «curse» words which they see as offensive to a deity. It is considered highly offensive to utter the word in the presence of children.

Non-English-speaking cultures tend to recognize the word’s vulgarity; however, it is generally not censored there as often as in English-speaking cultures.

The Canadian Press now considers the word to be commonplace and has added usage advice to the Canadian Press Caps and Spelling guide.^[1]

Etymology

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the ultimate etymology is uncertain, but that the word is «probably cognate» with a number of native Germanic words with meanings involving striking, rubbing, and having sex.^[2]

Flen flyys and freris

The usually accepted first known occurrence is in code in a poem in a mixture of Latin and English composed some time before 1500. The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title, «Flen flyys», from the first words of its opening line, Flen, flyys, and freris (= «Fleas, flies, and friars»). The line that contains fuck reads Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk. Removing the substitution cipher (here, replacing each letter by the next letter in alphabetical order, as the English alphabet was then) on the phrase «gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk» yields non sunt in coeli, quia fvccant vvivys of heli, which translated means, «They are not in heaven because they fuck wives of Ely».^[3] The phrase was coded likely because it accused some Church personnel of misbehaving; it is uncertain to what extent the word fuck was considered acceptable at the time. (The stem of fvccant is an English word used as Latin: English medieval Latin has many examples of writers using English words when they did not know the Latin word: «workmannus» is an example.) (In the Middle English of this poem, the term wife was still used generically for woman.)

John le Fucker

A man’s name, «John le Fucker», is reported (first in Carl Buck’s 1949 Indo-European dictionary) from an administrative record of 26 April 1278. An abstract of its contents is given in Calendar of the Close rolls preserved in the Public record office, Edward I,^[4] AD 1272–1279, London 1900, p. 451: «John le Fucker of Tythinge, imprisoned at Peterborough for the death of Walter de Leyghton and William de Leyghton, wherewith he is charged, has letters to the sheriff of Northampton to bail him.«

There is a theory that this example of its usage is a spelling variant of «fulcher», meaning soldier.^[5]

A detailed discussion can be found in Allen Walker Read’s Milestones in the History of English in America (Annual supplement to: American Speech). Durham, NC: Published for the American Dialect Society by Duke University Press, 2002 ISBN 0-8223-6526-X, PADS 86.

Anglo-Saxon

An Anglo-Saxon charter^[6][7] granted by Offa, king of Mercia, dated AD 772, granting land at Bexhill, Sussex to a bishop, includes this text in a mixture of Anglo-Saxon language and Latin:

Þonne syndon þa gauolland þas utlandes into Bexlea in hiis locis qui appellantur hiis nominibus: on Berna hornan .iii. hida, on Wyrtlesham .i., on Ibbanhyrste .i., on Croghyrste .viii., on Hrigce .i., on Gyllingan .ii., on Fuccerham 7 and on Blacanbrocan .i., on Ikelesham .iii.; Then the tax-lands of the outland belonging to Bexley are in these places which are called by these names: at Barnhorne 3 hides, at Wyrtlesham [Worsham farm near Bexhill ] 1, at Ibbanhyrst 1, at Crowhurst 8, at (Rye? The ridge north of Hastings?) 1, at Gillingham 2, at Fuccerham and at Blackbrook [may be Black Brooks in Westfield village just north of Hastings ] 1, at Icklesham 3.

The placename Fuccerham may or may not be related to the verb «fuck», which in Anglo-Saxon would probably have been fucian = «to fuck», ic fucie = «I fuck».

Older etymology

Via Germanic

The word has probable cognates in other Germanic languages, such as German ficken (to fuck); Dutch fokken (to breed, to strike, to beget); dialectal Norwegian fukka (to copulate), and dialectal Swedish fokka (to strike, to copulate) and fock (penis).^[2] This points to a possible etymology where Common Germanic fuk– comes from an Indo-European root meaning «to strike», cognate with non-Germanic words such as Latin pugnus «fist».^[2] By reverse application of Grimm’s law, this hypothetical root has the form *pug–. In early Proto-Germanic the word was likely used at first as a slang or euphemistic replacement for an older word for intercourse, and then became the usual word for intercourse.^{[citation needed]}

Yet another possible etymology is from the Old High German word pfluog, meaning «to plow, as in a field». This is supported in part by a book by Carl Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido, in which he discusses the «primitive play of words» and the phallic representation of the plough, including its appearance on a vase found in an archaeological dig near Florence, Italy, which depicts six ithyphallic (erect-penised) men carrying a plow.

The original Indo-European root for to copulate is likely to be * h₃yeb^h– or *h₃eyb^h–, which is attested in Sanskrit यभति (yabhati), Russian ебать (yebat’ ), Polish jebać, and Serbian јебати (jebati), among others: compare the Greek verb οἴφω (oíphō) = «I have sex with», and the Greek noun Ζέφυρος (Zéphyros) (which references a Greek belief that the west wind Zephyrus caused pregnancy).

Via Latin or Greek

• Other possible connections are to Latin futuere (almost exactly the same meaning as the English verb «to fuck»); but it would have to be explained how the word reached Scandinavia from Roman contact, and how the t became k.^{[citation needed]} From fūtuere came French foutre, Catalan fotre, Italian fottere, Romanian futere, vulgar peninsular Spanish follar and joder, and Portuguese foder. However, there is considerable doubt and no clear lineage for these derivations. These roots, even if cognates, are not the original Indo-European word for to copulate, but Wayland Young (who agrees that these words are related) argues that they derive from the Indo-European *b^hu– or *b^hug– («be», «become»), or as causative «create» [see Young, 1964]. A possible intermediate might be a Latin 4th-declension verbal noun *fūtus, with possible meanings including «act of (pro)creating».
• Greek phyō (φύω) has various meanings, including (of a man) «to beget», or (of a woman), «to give birth to».^[8] Its perfect pephyka (πέφυκα) can be likened^{[citation needed]} to «fuck» and its equivalents in other Germanic languages.^[8]

False etymologies

One reason that the word fuck is so hard to trace etymologically is that it was used far more extensively in common speech than in easily traceable written forms. There are several urban-legend false etymologies postulating an acronymic origin for the word. None of these acronyms was ever recorded before the 1960s, according to the authoritative lexicographical work The F-Word, and thus are backronyms. In any event, the word fuck has been in use far too long for some of these supposed origins to be possible. Some of these urban legends are that the word fuck came from Irish law. If a couple were caught committing adultery, they would be punished «For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge In the Nude», with «FUCKIN» written on the stocks above them to denote the crime. Another theory is that of a royal permission. During the Black Death in the Middle Ages, towns were trying to control populations and their interactions. Since uncontaminated resources were scarce, many towns required permission to have children. Hence, the legend goes, that couples that were having children were required to first obtain royal permission (usually from a local magistrate or lord) and then place a sign somewhere visible from the road in their home that said «Fornicating Under Consent of King», which was later shortened to «FUCK». This story is hard to document, but has persisted in oral and literary traditions for many years; however, it has been demonstrated to be an urban legend.^[9]

Usage history

Early usage

Its first known use as a verb meaning to have sexual intercourse is in «Flen flyys», written around 1475.

William Dunbar’s 1503 poem «Brash of Wowing» includes the lines: «Yit be his feiris he wald haue fukkit: / Ye brek my hairt, my bony ane» (ll. 13–14).

John Florio’s 1598 Italian-English dictionary, A Worlde of Wordes, included the term, along with several now-archaic, but then vulgar synonyms, in this definition:

• Fottere: To jape, to sard, to fucke, to swive, to occupy.

Of these, «occupy» and «jape» still survive as verbs, though with less profane meanings, while «sard» was a descendant of the Anglo-Saxon verb seordan (or seorðan, <ON serða), to copulate; and «swive» had derived from earlier swīfan, to revolve i.e. to swivel (compare modern-day «screw»).

While Shakespeare never used the term explicitly; he hinted at it in comic scenes in a few plays. The Merry Wives of Windsor (IV.i) contains the expression focative case (see vocative case). In Henry V (IV.iv), Pistol threatens to firk (strike) a soldier, a euphemism for fuck.

Rise of modern usage

Though it appeared in John Ash’s 1775 A New and Complete Dictionary, listed as «low» and «vulgar,» and appearing with several definitions,^[10] fuck did not appear in any widely-consulted dictionary of the English language from 1795 to 1965. Its first appearance in the Oxford English Dictionary (along with the word cunt) was in 1972. There is anecdotal evidence of its use during the American Civil War.^{[citation needed]}

Modern usage

Most literally, to fuck is to copulate, but it is also used as a more general expletive or intensifier. Some instances of the word can be taken at face value, such as «Let’s fuck», «I would fuck her/him», or «He/she fucks». Other uses are dysphemistic: The sexual connotation, usually connected to masturbation (in the case of «go fuck yourself» or «go fuck your ass»), is invoked to incite additional disgust, or express anger or outrage. For example, «Fuck that!», «Fuck no!», «Fuck off», or «Fuck you!». By itself, fuck is usually used as an exclamation, indicating surprise, pain, fear, disgust, disappointment, anger, or a sense of extreme elation. In this usage, there is no connection to the sexual meaning of the word implied, and is used purely for its «strength» as a vulgarity. Additionally, other uses are similarly vacuous; fuck (or variations such as «the fuck» or «fucking») could be removed and leave a sentence of identical syntactical meaning. For example, rap music often uses the word fucking as an emphatic adjective («I’m the fucking man») for the word’s rhythmic properties.

Insertion of the trochaic word fucking can also be used as an exercise for diagnosing the cadence of an English-language word. This is the use of «fuck» or more specifically «fucking» as an infix, or more properly, a tmesis (see expletive infixation). For example, the word in-fucking-credible sounds acceptable to the English ear, and is in fairly common use, while incred-fucking-ible would sound very clumsy (though, depending on the context, this might be perceived as a humorous improvisation of the word). «Absofuckinglutely» and «motherfucking» are also common uses of «fuck» as an affix. While neither dysphemistic nor connected to the sexual connotations of the word, even the vacuous usages are considered offensive and gratuitous, and censored in some media. For example, «None of your fucking business!» or «Shut the fuck up!» A common insult is «Get fucked», which in a non-offensive context would translate as «get stuffed». The word is one of the few that has legitimate colloquial usage as a verb, adverb, adjective, command, conjunction, exclamatory, noun and pronoun.

In another usage, the word fucker is used as a term of endearment rather than antipathy. This usage is not uncommon; to say «you’re one smart fucker» is often a term of affection. However, because of its ambiguity and vulgarity, the word fucker in reference to another person can easily be misinterpreted. Though fuck can serve as a noun, the fucker form is used in a context that refers to an individual. Normally in these cases, if fuck is used instead of fucker, the sentence refers to the sexual ability of the subject (for example, «He’s a great fuck!»), although confusingly in a minority of occasions the word «fuck» can hold exactly the same meaning as «fucker» (e.g., when preceded by an adjective: «You’re a pretty clever fuck.»).

Related to fucker is the word motherfucker. Sometimes used as an extreme insult—an accusation of incest—this term is also occasionally used to connote respectful awe. For example, «He’s a mean motherfucker» does not mean «He’s abusive, filthy and copulates with his mother», but «He’s someone to be afraid of.» In this context, some gang members might even describe themselves as «motherfuckers.» Motherfucker can be used as a rhythmic filler in hip hop, rap or dance music. The word «fuck» is used in many forms of music. An example of this is in The Crystal Method’s song «Name of the Game». Perhaps motherfucker’s rhythmic compatibility is due to its quadrisyllabic pronunciation, making it a natural fit for popular music that is written in 4/4 metre. Also contributing to its use in aggressive, high-energy music is the fact that it includes a hard «k» sound in its third syllable, making it easy to exclaim, particularly when pronounced as «mutha fucka». Despite these rhythmic qualities, motherfucker has not become as accepted in English usage as its root fuck.

A more succinct example of the flexibility of the word is its use as almost every word in a sentence. In his book, Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War, Paul Fussell, literary historian and professor emeritus of English literature at the University of Pennsylvania, recounted

Once, on a misty Scottish airfield, an airman was changing the magneto on the engine of a Wellington bomber. Suddenly his wrench slipped and he flung it on the grass and snarled, «Fuck! The fucking fucker’s fucked.» The bystanders were all quite well aware that he had stripped a bolt and skinned his knuckles.^[11]

The phrase «Fuck you, you fucking fuck!» is a memorable quote from the movie Blue Velvet from 1986, and is still used today as heard in Strapping Young Lad’s «You Suck» from their 2006 album The New Black. Another example is, «Fuck the fucking fuckers!» Because of its vulgar status, the word fuck is usually restricted in mass media and barred from titles in the United States. In 2002, when the controversial French film Baise-moi (2000) was released in the US, its title was changed to Rape Me, rather than the literal Fuck Me, though this may have been for effect. Similarly, the Swedish film Fucking Åmål was retitled Show Me Love.

Online forums and public blogs may censor the word by use of automatic filters. For example, Fark.com replaces the word fuck with fark. Others replace the word with asterisks (****) to censor it (and other profanities) entirely. To avert these filters, many online posters will use the word fvck. This particular alteration is in common usage at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where students use it in reference to the inscriptions on MIT’s neoclassical buildings, in which the letter U is replaced by V. A typical coinage in this idiom would be «I’m fvcked by the Institvte.» (Other less common spellings to cheat a censor are «fück» and «phuck».) Another way to bypass a word filter is to use leet (Fuck becomes F(_) c|< or |=(_)Ck to name a couple.)

The word fuck is a component of many acronyms, some of which—like SNAFU and FUBAR—date as far back as World War II. Many more recent coinages, such as the shorthand «WTF?» for «what the fuck?,» or «STFU» for «shut the fuck up», have been widely extant on the Internet, and may count as examples of memes. Many acronyms will also have an F or MF added to increase emphasis, for example OMG (Oh My God) becomes OMFG (Oh My Fucking God). Abbreviated versions of the word tend not to be considered as offensive. Despite the proclaimed vulgarity of the word, several comedians rely on fuck for comedic routines. George Carlin created several literary works based upon the word. Other comedians who use or used the word consistently in their routines include Billy Connolly, Denis Leary, Lewis Black, Andrew Dice Clay, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Sam Kinison.

List of recent uses

In 1928, D. H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover gained notoriety for its frequent use of the words fuck, fucked, and fucking.

Perhaps the earliest usage of the word in popular music was the 1938 Eddy Duchin release of the Louis Armstrong song «Ol’ Man Mose». The words created a scandal at the time, resulting in sales of 170,000 copies during the Great Depression years when sales of 20,000 were considered blockbuster. The verse reads:

(We believe) He kicked the bucket,
(We believe) Yeah man, buck-buck-bucket,
(We believe) He kicked the bucket and ol’ man mose is dead,
(We believe) Ahh, fuck it!
(We believe) Buck-buck-bucket,
(We believe) He kicked the bucket and ol’ man mose is dead.

The liberal usage of the word (and other vulgarisms) by certain artists (such as James Joyce, Henry Miller, Lenny Bruce, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, in their Derek and Clive personas) has led to the banning of their works and criminal charges of obscenity. After Norman Mailer’s publishers convinced him to bowdlerize fuck as fug in his work The Naked and the Dead (1948), Tallulah Bankhead supposedly greeted him with the quip, «So you’re the young man who can’t spell fuck.» In fact, according to Mailer, the quip was devised by Bankhead’s PR man. He and Bankhead did not meet until 1966 and did not discuss the word then. The rock group The Fugs named themselves after the Mailer euphemism.

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger featured the use of fuck you in print. First published in the United States in 1951, the novel remains controversial to this day due to its use of the word, standing at number 13 for the most banned books from 1990–2000 according to the American Library Association.^[12] The book offers a blunt portrayal of the main character’s reaction to the existence of the word, and all that it means.

The first documented use of the word fuck on live British television has been attributed to theatre critic Kenneth Tynan in 1965. Controversy also ensued in 1976 when Today host Bill Grundy interviewed the Sex Pistols, after guitarist Steve Jones called Grundy a ‘dirty fucker’ and a ‘fucking rotter’.^[13]

One of the earliest mainstream Hollywood movies to use the word fuck was director Robert Altman’s irreverent antiwar film, MASH, released in 1970 at the height of the Vietnam War. During the football game sequence about three-quarters of the way through the film, one of the MASH linemen says to an 8063rd offensive player, «All right, bud, your fuckin’ head is coming right off.» Also, former Beatle John Lennon’s 1971 release «Working Class Hero» featured use of the word, which was rare in music at the time and caused it to, at most, be played only in segments on the radio.

Use in politics

Fuck is not widely used in politics, and any use by notable politicians tends to produce controversy. Some events of this nature include:

• In 1965, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson said to the Greek ambassador Alexandros Matsas when he objected to American plans in Cyprus, «Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fellows continue itching the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephant’s trunk, whacked good.»^[14][15]
• During the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Chicago mayor Richard Daley became so enraged by a speech from Abraham A. Ribicoff that he shouted «Fuck you!»^[16] Daley would later claim that he was shouting «you fink, you» and calling Ribicoff a «faker».^[17] On the first night of this same convention, which was President Johnson’s birthday, a huge crowd of thousands of yippies, hippies and anti Vietnam war protesters was famously filmed while simultaneously roaring «Fuck you, Lyndon Johnson!»
• During debate in February 1971 in the Canadian House of Commons, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau mouthed the words «fuck off» under his breath (perhaps almost silently) at Conservative MP John Lundrigan, while Lundrigan made some comments about unemployment. Afterward, when asked by a television reporter what he had been thinking, Mr. Trudeau famously replied «What is the nature of your thoughts, gentlemen, when you say ‘fuddle duddle’ or something like that?». «Fuddle duddle» consequently became a catchphrase in Canadian media associated with Trudeau.^[18]
• The first accepted modern use in the British House of Commons came in 1982 when Reg Race, Labour MP for Wood Green, referred to adverts placed in local newsagents by prostitutes which read «Phone them and fuck them». Hansard, the full record of debates, printed «F*** them», but even this euphemism was deprecated by the Speaker, George Thomas.^[19]
• Shortly after Tony Blair was elected Leader of the Labour Party, the then left-wing Labour MP George Galloway told a public meeting «I don’t give a fuck what Tony Blair thinks» when questioned about the party’s move to the right.^[20]
• A famous British usage of fuck comes from a 2001/2002 scandal at the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions, while Stephen Byers was the Minister. His press officer, Jo Moore, sent an email after the September 11, 2001 attacks suggesting it would be «a good day to bury bad news». As the scandal unravelled, Permanent Secretary to the Department, Sir Richard Mottram was widely reported to have said «We’re all fucked. I’m fucked. You’re fucked. The whole department is fucked. It’s the biggest cock-up ever and we’re all completely fucked.» To British ears this was particularly amusing coming from someone so senior in the civil service.
• In late 2003, US presidential candidate Senator John Kerry used the word fuck in an interview with Rolling Stone. Referring to his vote in favor of the resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, Senator John Kerry stated, «I voted for what I thought was best for the country. Did I expect Howard Dean to go off to the left and say, ‘I’m against everything’? Sure. Did I expect George Bush to fuck it up as badly as he did? I don’t think anybody did.»^[21]
• In June 2004, during a heated exchange on the U.S. Senate floor about Halliburton’s role in the reconstruction of Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney told Democratic senator Patrick Leahy, «Go fuck yourself». Coincidentally, Cheney’s outburst occurred on the same day that the Defense of Decency Act was passed in the Senate.^[22]
• In February 2005, British media chief Alastair Campbell accidentally sent the email «Just spoke to trev. think tbwa shd give statement to newsnight saying party and agency work together well and nobody here has spoken to standard. Posters done by tbwa according to political brief. Now fuck off and cover something important you twats!» to the Newsnight journalist Andrew McFadyen, instead of a party official. Trev. refers to Trevor Beattie the boss of TBWA.
• In February 2006 (Australia), New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma, while awaiting the start of a Council of Australian Governments media conference in Canberra, was chatting to Victorian Premier Steve Bracks. Not realizing cameras were operating he was recorded as saying «Today? This fuckwit who’s the new CEO of the Cross City Tunnel has … been saying what controversy? There is no controversy.»^[23] The exchange referred to the newly appointed CEO of a recently-opened toll road within Sydney.
• On January 31, 2007, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer angrily retorted to Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, «Listen, I’m a fucking steamroller, and I’ll roll over you and anybody else.» According to The New York Post, Spitzer confirmed the exchange the following day.^[24]
• In 2007, U.S. Senator John Cornyn objected to John McCain’s perceived intrusion upon a Senate meeting on immigration, saying, «Wait a second here. I’ve been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You’re out of line.» McCain, known for his short temper,^[25] replied «Fuck you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room.»^[26][27]
• In April 2007, New Zealand Education Minister Steve Maharey said «fuck you» to a fellow MP during parliamentary question time.^[28] He apologized shortly afterwards.
• In December 2008, recorded telephone conversations revealed Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich trying to «sell» an appointment to the Senate seat that Barack Obama resigned after being elected President. In the phone conversation, Blagojevich said in reference to his power to appoint a new Senator, «I’ve got this thing and it’s fucking golden and I’m just not giving it up for fuckin’ nothing.» In the recorded conversations, Blagojevich also referred to Obama as a «motherfucker» and repeatedly said «fuck him». When speaking of the Obama administration’s request that Valerie Jarrett be appointed as Obama’s replacement, Blagojevich complained, «They’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them.» Blagojevich also said Tribune Company ownership should be told to «fire those fuckers» in reference to Chicago Tribune editors critical of him.^[29]
• In December 2009 in Dáil Éireann, Paul Gogarty responded to heckles from Emmet Stagg with the outburst «With all due respect, in the most unparliamentary language, fuck you Deputy Stagg. Fuck you.»^[30][31] Gogarty immediately withdrew the remarks and later made a personal statement of apology.^[30] Reportage of the outburst quickly spread by media and the internet.^[31] A subcommittee of the Dáil’s standing committee on procedure and privilege produced a 28-page report on the incident.^[30]
• On March 23, 2010, U.S. vice president Joe Biden whispered into President Barack Obama’s ear, «This is a big fucking deal» when referring to the U.S. health care reform bill. His words were picked up by microphones and video.^[32]
• On May 3, 2010, Canadian senator Nancy Ruth advised representatives of women’s groups to «shut the fuck up on» access to abortion, in the run-up to the 36th G8 summit.^[33]

Censorship

The films Ulysses and I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (both 1967) are contenders for being the first film to use the word ‘fuck,’ although the word ‘fucking’ is clearly mouthed silently in the film Sink the Bismarck! (1960), and the title character says it in the cartoon Bosko’s Picture Show (1933). Since the U.S. adoption of the MPAA film rating system, use of the word has been accepted in R-rated movies, and under the older rules, use of the word in a sexual way would automatically cause the film to be given an R rating. Later changes could allow for a maximum of three, non-sexual, strictly exclamatory uses of the word in PG-13 movies^{[citation needed]}, extreme example being the movies The American President and Nine Months (this is more of a guideline than a rule, however, since the MPAA states it has no strict rules on how a movie is rated).

In 1970, Beatle John Lennon successfully got the word past the censors on his song «Working Class Hero» with the lines «They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool, till you’re so fucking crazy you can’t follow their rules» and «You think you’re so clever and classless and free, but you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.»

Since the 1970s, the use of the word «fuck» in R-rated movies has become so commonplace in mainstream American movies that it is rarely noticed by most audiences. Nonetheless, a few movies have made exceptional use of the word, to the point where such films as Fuck, Good Will Hunting, Casino, The Last Detail, Menace II Society, The Big Lebowski, The Departed, Scarface (1983), Pulp Fiction, Blue Velvet, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and Goodfellas as well as the HBO TV series The Sopranos are known for its extensive use. In the movie Meet the Parents, and its sequels Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers, the main character’s last name of «Focker» is a running joke. In the popular comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, it is the chief word, repeatedly uttered, during the opening five minutes. To many, one of the most humorous tirades demonstrating various usages of the word appears in the comedy, Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), where Steve Martin expresses his dissatisfaction in his treatment by a rental car agency. The movie Student Bodies inserted a scene in the middle of the film to explain to audiences that movies with an R rating are more popular than those carrying a PG rating, which the movie could easily have had. He ends his address with, » … the producers of this motion picture have asked me to take this opportunity to say ‘Fuck you’.», at which time the MPAA R-rating banner appeared.

In several PG-rated movies, however, the word is used, mainly because at the time there was no PG-13 rating and the MPAA did not want to give the films R ratings; for instance, All the President’s Men (1976), where it is used seven times; The Kids Are Alright (1979), where it is used twice; and The Right Stuff (1983), where it is used five times. Spaceballs (1987) is one of at least four anomalies in that it was rated PG after the 1984 introduction of the PG-13 rating, yet it includes Dark Helmet’s line, «‘Out of order’?! Fuck! Even in the future nothing works!» The second is Big (1988) which has the character of Billy asking Tom Hanks’ character, «Who the fuck do you think you are?» The third is Beetlejuice (1988) which has the character Betelgeuse kick over a fake tree and scream, «nice fucking model!»^[34] The fourth is 1988’s Caddyshack II where Randy Quaid’s character shouts out he is going to break down a door with a «fucking baseball bat.»

In the 1999 film «Galaxy Quest,» Sigourney Weaver’s character Gwen DeMarco is edited from the line «Well, fuck that!» to «Well, screw that!» The change was made to avoid a PG-13 rating, and the original line is obvious when reading her lips.

Films edited for broadcast use matching euphemisms so that lip synching will not be thrown off. One televised version of Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, for instance, had the actors dub in the words frick, Nubian, and melon farmer for fuck, nigger, and motherfucker, respectively. In similarly dubbed versions of Die Hard and Die Hard 2, Bruce Willis’ catchphrase «Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker» is replaced by «Yippee-ki-yay, Mister Falcon» or «Yippee-ki-yay, Kemo Sabe.» Similarly, the TV broadcast edit of Snakes on a Plane has Samuel L. Jackson saying «I have had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday-to-Friday plane», emending two occurrences of motherfucking.^[35] In the film The Big Lebowski, John Goodman’s character repeatedly yells, «This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass» while trashing a car. It was infamously censored on television as «This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps.»^[36] His character also repeatedly says to Steve Buscemi’s character, «Shut the fuck up, Donny,» or «Donny, shut the fuck up.» In the television version, fuck is censored with hell.

Many stand-up comedians who perform for adult audiences make liberal use of the word fuck. While George Carlin’s use of the word was an important part of his stage persona, other comedians (such as Andrew Dice Clay) have been accused of substituting vulgarity and offensiveness for genuine creativity through overuse of the word. Billy Connolly and Lenny Bruce were pioneers of the use of the word in their shows for general audiences.

Recently, the hip-hop group Black-Eyed Peas’ hit song «Don’t Phunk With My Heart» was censored on many radio stations to «Don’t Mess With My Heart», establishing a new trend toward eliminating all euphemisms for «fuck» as well as the word itself. James Blunt’s first major song, You’re Beautiful, featured the line «she could see from my face that I was fucking high» – this was censored to «flying high» for broadcasting purposes.

Use in marketing

In April 1997, clothing retailer French Connection began branding their clothes «fcuk» (usually written in lowercase). Though they insisted it was an acronym for French Connection United Kingdom, its similarity to the word «fuck» caused controversy.^[37] French Connection fully exploited this and produced an extremely popular range of t-shirts with messages such as «fcuk this», «hot as fcuk», «mile high fcuk», «fcuk me», «fcuk her», «too busy to fcuk», «fcuk football», «fcuk fashion», «fcuk fear», «fcuk on the beach», «the joy of fcuk», etc.

In 2009, the European Union’s OHIM trade marks agency disallowed a German brewery to market a beer called «Fucking Hell». They sued, and on 26 March 2010 got permission to market the beer. They claim the beer is actually named after the Austrian village Fucking and the German term for light beer, hell.^[38]

Freedom of expression

In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the mere public display of fuck is protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and cannot be made a criminal offense. In 1968, Paul Robert Cohen had been convicted of «disturbing the peace» for wearing a jacket with «FUCK THE DRAFT» on it (in reference to conscription in the Vietnam War). The conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeals and overturned by the Supreme Court. Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971).

In 1983, pornographer Larry Flynt, representing himself before the U.S. Supreme Court in a libel case, shouted, «Fuck this court!» during the proceedings, and then called the justices «nothing but eight assholes (referring to Justices Warren E. Burger, William J. Brennan, Jr., Byron White, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., William Rehnquist, and John Paul Stevens) and a token cunt» (referring to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor). Chief Justice Warren E. Burger had him arrested for contempt of court, but the charge was later dismissed on a technicality.^[39]

Band names

The word «fuck» has been used in a number of band names, generally based on common compounds. Although most of these bands are in the aggressive, non-mainstream genres of punk and metal, others fall into the categories of more accessible forms of electronic rock and pop.^[where?][40]

Holy fuck

«Holy fuck» is a widely used example of ‘liturgical profanity’ used interjectionally to express anger, contempt, disgust, or amazement. Usually vulgar.^[41] Noted by academics^[42][43] and used in literature,^[44][45][46] deriving its power from a combination of the sacred, holy, and the profane, fuck. An exclamation, similar to «holy shit!», but more offensive, also used informally for sex within a religious context.^{[dubious – discuss][47]}

Machine mistranslation

The word fuck occurs sometimes in Chinese/English bilingual public notices in China as a machine translation of the Simplified Chinese character 干 (干) or Traditional Chinese character 幹 (幹) which can also mean «dry» and «do», e.g., «spread to fuck the fruit» for «loose dried fruit», «fuck to adjust the area» for «dry seasonings section», «fuck the certain price of goods» for «dry foods price counter». The fault occurred in some versions of commonly-used Chinese to English machine translators, for example Jinshan (金山 = «Gold Mountain») by Kingsoft.^[48]

Common alternatives

In conversation or writing, reference to or use of the word «fuck» may be replaced by any of many alternative words or phrases, including «the F-word» or «the F-Bomb» (a play on A-Bomb / H-Bomb), or simply, «eff» (as in «What the eff!» or «You eff-ing fool!»). Also, there are many commonly used substitutes, such as «flipping», «frigging», «fricking», «freaking», «feck», «fudge» or any of a number of similar sounding nonsense words. In print, there are alternatives such as, «F***», «F – – k», etc.; or a string of non-alphanumeric characters, for example, «@$#*%!» and similar (especially favored in comic books).

A common replacement word used mainly on the internet is «fsck», derived from the name of the Unix file system checking utility.^[49] In Battlestar Galactica the bowdlerized form ‘Frack’ (spelt ‘Frak’ in the reimagined 2003 version) was used as a substitute for fuck. The word is sometimes jokingly used as a curse by fans, but its use in unrelated media is growing.^[50] Similarly, the word «frell» is used as a substitute on the TV show Farscape, and Dr. Elliot Reid (played by Sarah Chalke) has frequently used the substitute «frick» on the TV show Scrubs.

The phrase ‘feck’ is a common substitute for «fuck» in Ireland, where it is considered to be less rude, though still not acceptable in many contexts. It has come into occasional use across the UK in the last 15 years as a result of its frequent use in the Father Ted comedy series. Although the word is considered to be equally as rude as «fuck», its appearance in Father Ted and in a Magner’s Cider advert suggest the opposite.

The word «firetruck» is also used as an alternative, starting with «f» and ending with «-uck».

See also

• Bleep censor
• Censorship
• Euphemism
• For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
• fcuk, a brand of clothing
• Four-letter word
• Fucking, Austria (name of a village)
• Harcourt interpolation
• List of films that most frequently use the word «fuck»
• Madonna on Late Show with David Letterman
• Profanity
  • Profanity by language
  • Profanity in American Sign Language
  • Profanity in English language
  • Profanity in science fiction
• Seven dirty words
• Sexual slang
• South Park

References

Further reading

• Hargrave, Andrea Millwood (2000). Delete Expletives? London: Advertising Standards Authority, British Broadcasting Corporation, Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission.
• Jesse Sheidlower, The F Word (1999) ISBN 0-375-70634-8. Presents hundreds of uses of fuck and related words.
• Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-19-431198-8.
• Phillip J. Cunningham, Zakennayo!: The Real Japanese You Were Never Taught in School, Plume (1995) ISBN
• Wayland Young, Eros Denied: Sex in Western Society. Grove Press/Zebra Books, New York 1964.
• Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-19-431197-X
• Philip J. Cunningham, Zakennayo!: The Real Japanese You Were Never Taught in School, Plume (1995) ISBN 0-452-27506-7
• Wayland Young, Eros Denied: Sex in Western Society. Grove Press/Zebra Books, New York 1964.
• Carl Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious: A Study of the Transformations and Symbolisms of the Libido. Moffat, Yard and Company, New York 1916. Translated by Beatrice M. Hinkle, M.D., Neurological Dept. of Cornell University Medical School and of the New York Post Graduate Medical School.
• Richard Dooling, Blue Streak: Swearing, Free Speech & Sexual Harassment, (1996) ISBN 0-679-44471-8. Chapters on famous swear words, including the f-word, and the laws pertaining to their use.
• Fuck – documentary film by Steve Anderson (THINKFilm 2005)

External links

• Re: the Cheney-Leahy incident, slate.com discusses how American newspapers decide whether or not to print fuck.
• «Online Etymology Dictionary.» Some etymological research on the word fuck.
• Fuck, academic paper exploring the legal implications of the word, by Christopher M. Fairman, Ohio State University – Michael E. Moritz College of Law March 2006. Ohio State Public Law Working Paper No. 59.
• Archive.org – Jack Wagner, «The Word Fuck».

One origin story for fuck is that it comes from when sex was outlawed unless it was permitted explicitly by the king, so people who were legally banging had Fornication Under Consent of the King on their doors, or: F.U.C.K. But obviously that’s wrong. As are all of the other nonsensical acronyms floating about (anything ending in Carnal Knowledge uses words which wouldn’t be used until AFTER the contents of this blog post). So if you do believe any of that, stop it. Stop it right now.

But right now there’s a post going round with a lovely image of a manuscript from Brasenose College, Oxford, proudly declaring it’s the earliest instance of fuck in English (although, it notes, that is apart from that pesky one from Scotland and that one that says fuck but is written in code). But even if we DO agree to discount those two little exceptions, it’s still not the earliest instance. I think the Brasenose fuck was considered the earliest in 1993, and that’s quite out-dated now.

So, for your enjoyment and workplace sniggering, here’s a potted history of fuck.

Instances of fuck before the fifteenth century are rare. Despite it commonly being classed as one of the Anglo-Saxon four-letter words, Jesse Sheidlower (author of an entire book on fuck, and past editor of the OED so he knows what he’s talking about) suspects that it came into English in the fifteenth century from something like Low German, Frisian or Dutch. While ‘fuck’ existed in English before then it was never used to mean rogering, instead it typically meant ‘to strike’ (which was, way-back-when, related to the word that became fuck because it’s a kind of hitting…). Anything that appears earlier is most likely to be the use of fuck to mean ‘to strike’. If you wanted to talk about making whoopee in a dirty way, the Middle English word to use was swive. [ETA: @earlymodernjohn asked if it’s related to Modern English ‘swivel’ as in ‘go swivel’ and it is! The more you know…]

Another theory for why there’s hardly any written record of fuck before the fifteenth century is because, if it was around before then, it was just too darn rude to write down. The coded example might have been an early way around actually writing it.

Another theory for its late arrival is that it’s a borrowing from Norse (the Vikings) via Scottish because several early instances are found in Scottish writing (such as the fifteenth-century one discounted in that other article). However, this is generally believed to be unlikely, in part because the Scottish weren’t considered influential enough for English to borrow words from them. Perhaps there were more early written examples in Scottish simply because they were less prudish about writing it.

There are lots of instances of the word fuck from before the fifteenth century drifting around, some of the most notable of which are, chronologically:

John Le Fucker (supposedly from 1278) – While excellent, this name is probably apocryphal. Since it was first written about no-one’s been able to find it and it’s generally assumed to be a mis-reading, perhaps of Tucker, or a variant on fulcher, meaning ‘soldier’. Disappointing.

Fuckebegger (1286/7) it appears as part of the surname of one of Edward I’s palfreymen. Marc Morris posted this excellent photo on Twitter:

However, this is generally assumed to mean ‘to strike’ and can be compared with the Anglo-Norman surname Butevilein meaning ‘to strike the churl or wretch’ (‘vilein’ being related to the English villain which originally meant a person of a lower status).

The place-names Ric Wyndfuk and Ric Wyndfuck de Wodehous (which sounds like a brilliant place to live), both of which are found near Sherwood Forest in a document from 1287. These use the bird-name Windfucker (first cited 1599) which may or may not have something to do with making the beast with two backs. The OED veers towards yes, probably, it’s a kestrel which majestically mounts the wind. So the place-names here kind of have fuck in them by a circuitous route and are possibly the earliest instance of fuck in English.

Simon Fukkebotere and Willm’i Smalfuk (Ipswich, c. 1290). Simon’s ‘fuck’ is almost definitely being used to mean ‘to strike’ and describes his trade, which, I know, is hugely disappointing. Who wants ‘hit-butter’ when you could have ‘fuck-butter’?? William’s ‘fuck’ is a new one and it’s probably related to a fukke, a type of sail first cited in 1465. Sorry.

EDIT [15th Sept 2015]: Roger Fuckebythenavele (1310) A new discovery! I spoke to Vox about it here.

Fockynggroue – Another place-name, from Bristol in 1373. This was shown in 2007 quite persuasively to be the earliest instance of fuck in English used to mean doing the funny downstairs business. It’s a name akin to Lovegrove rather than one which uses the Old English personal name Focca which appears in the place-name Fockbury, or from Old English Folca as in Folkestone. While the instances before this are possibly to do with getting down and nasty, this one’s pretty conclusive, and predates the Fucking Abbot by 155 years.

The coded poem mentioned above from 1475 called Fleas, Flies and Friars in which ‘fucking’ appears as follows:

Non sunt in celi
quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk
Which, decoded reads: ‘fuccant uuiuys of heli’

‘They [the friars] are not in Heaven because they fuck (the) women of Ely’ (which might be interpreted as a pun on ‘Hell’).

The following are the earliest citations in the OED:

1513 – W. Dunbar Poems, Scottish, ‘Be his feirris he wald haue fukkit’.

The Fucking Abbot (1528) isn’t even the earliest citation that’s widely talked about, predated by ten years by Dunbar, which the link discounts as not being in English, despite appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary.

[THE FUCKING ABBOT COMES HERE IN THE CHRONOLOGY]

1663 – Richard Head, Hic et Ubique: or, The Humors of Dublin. A comedy, ‘I did creep in..and there I did see putting [sic] the great fuck upon my weef.’ I’ve included this even though it’s quite late because I really like saying ‘the great fuck upon my weef’. And because it’s written by a man called Richard Head. RICHARD. HEAD.

And in 1680 by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester in a book of what sounds like LOVELY poems: ‘Thus was I Rook’d of Twelve substantial Fucks’.

So, I think we can definitely say there’s at least three, possibly four earlier instances of fuck in English before the Fucking Abbot. Sorry dude.

EDIT: I wrote about that ‘d’ here…

Bibliography:

Keith Briggs, ‘Two Thirteenth-Century By-Names: Fukkebotere and Smalfuk’, Nomina (2012), 141-43

Richard Coates, ‘Fockynggroue in Bristol’, Notes and Queries (2007), 373-76

Marc Morris, @Longshanks <https://twitter.com/Longshanks1307/status/432856212363694080>

Jesse Sheidlower, The F-Word (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)

Edward Wilson, ‘A “Damned F—In Abbot” In 1528: The Earliest English Example Of A Four-Letter Word’, Notes and Queries (1993), 29-34