The word fuck comes from

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

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

This sassy, controversial, comforting, profane and sacred four-letter word is finally getting the spotlight it deserves.

Pain, anger, happiness, boredom, elation, panic, disgust, excitement – the term “fuck” truly covers a range of states. But where does the word actually come from? Why is it so popular among English speakers and non-English speakers alike? Is “fuck” really that offensive? And truly, who, if anyone, gives a fuck?

For your guilty pleasure and ours, the Gymglish team has conjured up an abridged history of the word “fuck”, largely by watching Pulp Fiction and scanning Wikipedia, and it may well blow your effing mind. Read on!

Learn English with Gymglish 🇬🇧

The origins of fuck

Out of the 5,000 or so English words that begin with the letter “F”, fuck is the only word we refer to as “the F word”. But what are the term’s origins? Like many English insults and curse words, its history is colorful and roots remain somewhat mysterious.

Unlike most of its vulgar counterparts, fuck doesn’t have its roots in Old English. The F word is thought to come from the German word fricken which means “to strike” or “to hit”. It may also come from the Swedish dialectal word focka (“to strike” or “to copulate”) and/or the Dutch word fokken (“to breed”).

At some point, rumor had it that the word fuck was a backronym of “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” or the Irish “Fornication Under Consent of the King”. This of course has proven to be false, aka fucking bullshit. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that “the first definite evidence for the word comes from a 1528 manuscript found in Oxford”. Going as far back as the 13th century, however, historians have also come across surprising surnames related to the term, including John le Fucker (1278), Fuckebegger (1287) and Simon Fukkebotere (1290), which suggests that the word was used far before the 16th century. Also, records from Bristol dated 1373, refer to a town near Bristol called “Fockynggroue,” which may have been named for a remote place where couples eloped to enjoy some fucking alone time. Very romantic place. TripAdvisor rates it highly for honeymoons.

One of the reasons that the word “fuck” is so hard to trace etymologically lies in the fact that it was used far more extensively in common speech than in written form – likely because it carried a strong taboo. According to lexicographer and linguist Jesse Sheidlower in his book The F-Word (1995), the common usage of the word as we know it today was established by the mid-19th century, and has been fairly present in the English lexicon since.

So there you have it: “fuck’s” origins are disputable and elusive, but that doesn’t stop us from using it in every fucking possible situation. 

Learn English with Gymglish 🇬🇧

Is fuck really that offensive?

The curse word was banned in print in the United Kingdom following the British Obscene Publications Act of 1857, but still continued to be used in conversation nonetheless. The taboo was so strong that from 1795 to 1965, fuck did not appear in a single dictionary. Only in 1966 did the Penguin Dictionary break form to include the popular term word in its new edition.

Even today, for a great many people, the word is simply too vulgar to utter – it’s therefore common to hear distortions such as “fork” “frig”, “fack”, “flip” “eff” and even “fudge”, all of which allow people to sidestep the term in a less offensive manner.

Though the word fuck can literally refer to sexual intercourse, it’s often used in the figurative sense to denote or express a very strong emotion or reaction. Over the past decades, we can argue that the term’s offensiveness has gradually worn down and its impact has lessened, or at least our reaction to hearing it – it is common to hear the term daily under certain circumstances.

The acceptability of fuck is aided greatly by its popularization in film and television. In Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street alone, the expletive is dropped over 500 times over a 180-minute running time. In Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, the word is said around 400 times. However, this shift in use is by no means universally accepted – many people are still highly offended by the word.

Has this content piqued your curiosity? Read more in our article 50 spicy ways to use fuck. And in the meantime, try our online English course Gymglish for free for 7 days today.

Learn English with Gymglish 🇬🇧

Related articles:

• 50 spicy ways to use the word “fuck”
• English insults and curse words – a useful guide
• 5 dumb reasons to learn English
• 5 English idioms you’ll want to use forever
• A brief history of slang
• 5 reasons why slang is important in language learning
• 5 English Proverbs and their Meanings

BaKlol asks: Where did the word fuck come from?

In its various incarnations, the F-word can be a noun, verb, adjective, and even an infix. The Swiss Army Knife of the English language, this word has been adding spice to our conversations for centuries, even if our forbears were loathe to write it down. So where did it come from?

First, to dispel a widely touted myth- you’ll often read the origin of one of the most useful words in the English language is an acronym based on either “Fornication Under Command/Consent of the King” (purportedly the King trying to increase birth rates or alternatively restricting the act to put a halt to the spread of disease) or “[booked] For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” (for those being arrested for such). However, beyond there being zero evidence of either of these (or any other acronymic origin of the F-word), it’s worth pointing out that prior to the mid-20th century, while abbreviations were prevalent in text, pronouncing them as words was not something people did. This is actually an extremely modern phenomenon. In fact, according to linguist David Wilton,

There is only one known pre-twentieth-century [English] word with an acronymic origin and it was in vogue for only a short time in 1886. The word is “colinderies” or “colinda”, an acronym for the Colonial and Indian Exposition held in London in that year.

Combined with the lack of evidence supporting such an origin, we can safely dismiss origin stories like these.

Moving on from there, the first documented instance of some version of the F-word appears in a name- that of John le Fucker in 1278. The problem with this one is the original record of the name has been lost, so we have only a reference to it, rather than any context. It’s been speculated given the lack of others with this surname around this time, this may have been a typo of sorts, with, for example, “Tucker” being meant. It’s also been suggested it was a variant of Fulcher, meaning soldier. And even if it was correctly spelled, again, we have no context to what was meant.

Whatever is going on with le Fucker, about a decade later in 1286 there is an individual with the surname Fuckebegger, recorded as one of King Edward I’s servants who managed his horses. As to what Fuckebegger’s first name was, we’ll leave you to discern as we can’t really tell from the image of the document. As with le Fucker, it’s not clear from this name what the “fucke” part was referring to,  with the leading hypothesis being a “striker” of some sort. Or, if how we would use it today… poor guy was desperate apparently.

Picking up steam, in 1290 in Ipswich we have not one, but two Fuckers- one Simon Fukkebotere and Willm’i Smalfuk. Unfortunately for the amusement of our inner 12 year old selves, Simon having a last name pronounced “Fuck Butt…er” was probably just referring to striking/churning of butter.  Or, we suppose, he could have enjoyed churning that butter with his appendage, rather than using a churn dash- we’re not here to judge, you do you Simon- just given his customers probably wouldn’t have wanted to buy his butter if he was churning it with Señor Willy, most linguists go with the “striking/churning” origin. Similarly, Mr. Smalfuk, probably wasn’t a little Fuck, speculated to perhaps be referring to small fukke sails.

Moving on, we have one Roger Fuckebythenavele. The record of poor Roger was uncovered by Medieval History professor Dr. Paul Booth in 2015. At the time, he was researching an entirely unrelated thing when he came across a December 8, 1310 court record from Chester England in which Mr. Fuckebythenavele had that name applied to him thrice, getting rid of the possibility of any typos or the like. Of course, even here it can’t be definitively said the “Fuck” party meant as we’d think of it. But given the rest of the name, it certainly seems possible. As Dr. Booth states, “This surname is presumably a nickname. I suggest it could either mean an actual attempt at copulation by an inexperienced youth, later reported by a rejected girlfriend, or an equivalent of the word ‘dimwit’ i.e. a man who might think that that was the correct way to go about it.”

Either way, let’s all pause and appreciate the fact that all that will ever be remembered of poor Roger was that he maybe was an idiot or just really, really bad at sex…

And incidentally, what makes this one even more humorous is that around the 17th century, “to Roger” came to mean “to have sex” or “to penetrate”, from a slang for “penis” at the time.  Meaning if you combine the two slang terms across centuries, he was “Penis Fuckebythenavele”.

This also perhaps gives a new perspective on the “Jolly Roger” pirate flag name, though its origin isn’t definitively known.

Anyway- so that’s a lot of speculation. When did the word we all know and love today more definitively come to be? The first documented explicit use of the word fuck appears in a poem by Scottish poet and one time friar, William Dunbar, who wrote around 1503 in his Ane Brash of Wowing, “Yit be his feiris he wald haue fukkit”; or in context and translated:

He embraced tight, he kissed and groped,
As with the feeling he was overcome.
It be his manner he would have fucked [fukkit];
You break my heart, my lovely one!

In yet another example around this time, this one encrypted, the unknown author of the poem Flen flyys accused the friars of Ely of getting down and dirty with the ladies, writing sometime in the late 15th century, “Non sunt in cœli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk. …Fratres cum knyvys goth about and txxkxzv nfookt xxzxkt.”

After the key to the cypher is applied, this results in a poem that is a mix of Latin and English, and the pertinent word being “fuccant”. Notably here the author is Latinizing the then English word “fucc”, which was common at the time when the person didn’t know the Latin equivalent of the English word, or if one didn’t seem to exist. Translating fully to English, the passage is:

The Carmelite Brothers sail in a boat by Eli
They are not in heaven since they fuccant the wives of Eli.
All became drenched, for they had no steersman,
Brothers with knives go about and swive men’s wives.

This early documented account also hints at how fuck became a swearword in the first place given that “swive”, literally meaning “swivel” but figuratively meaning “sex”, was also censored in the passage. In essence, fuck was a taboo word simply because it directly referred to sex.

That said, not everyone so censored themselves with the f-bomb. Fast-forwarding to 1528, an unknown person wrote in the margins of a copy of Cicero’s De Officiis, (On Duties– more or less a moral guide), “O D fuckin Abbot”. It is generally thought the “d” here stood for “damn” or “damned” and was a curse word too far to the individual who wrote this.

Given the context here, it’s not clear whether said individual was referring to the fact that the Abbot was perhaps having sex with women, and thus damned, or whether he was using it sort of like, “damned fuckin’ Abbot man, he’s the worst…”

Whatever the case, just 7 years later Sir David Lyndsay wrote in his Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, “Bischops … may fuck thair fill and be vnmaryit”, giving us the first known instance of the common spelling of the four letter version of the word today.

So this all brings us to where the word came from. Given the timing and location of these first known definitive instances, the two leading hypotheses are- first, that it probably derived from one of the many flavors of the German “fuk” or “fukkon”. For example, the German “ficken” meaning, “to make quick movements to and fro”. This line of words, in turn, is speculated to come from the Proto-Indo-European *pewg meaning “to strike/hit”.

Somewhat similarly, the other leading hypothesis is that, given the term seems to have come from around Northern England or Scotland, whose language would be influenced by Viking invasions, the word may have Old Norse origins. Those advocating for this hypothesis point to the Norwegian “fukka”, meaning to “copulate”, or the Swedish “focka” to “copulate, strike, push”, which in turn may have derived from an Old Norse version of the words, which may have birthed the English “fuck”.

Whatever the case, the word would soon find its way into John Florio’s 1598 Italian-English dictionary, A Worlde of Wordes, such as defining a “fottitrice” as a “woman fucker, swiver, etc.” and seems to have been pretty ubiquitous at this point.

That said, an interesting note on this one is by the late 18th century the word almost completely disappeared from pretty much every prominent English dictionary until around the middle of the 20th century when, in 1965, The Penguin Dictionary decided they didn’t give a fuck, and so gave its readers “fuck”.

Of course, despite this moratorium on the word in print during this rather lengthy period, it seems to have still been commonly used in speech. For example, it is noted by John Brophy in his 1930 Songs of Slang of the British Soldier, the use of “fuck”

became so common that an effective way for the soldier to express this emotion was to omit this word. Thus if a sergeant said, ‘Get your fucking rifles!’ it was understood as a matter of routine. But if he said ‘Get your rifles!’ there was an immediate implication of urgency and danger.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:

• How the Tradition of Saying “Pardon My French” After Saying Swear Words Started
• What is a Tarnation?
• Why are Women Called Sluts, Dames, and Broads?
• Does Sex Before An Athletic Event Really Hinder Performance?
• Why Police Officers are Sometimes Called “Pigs” and Why “Poindexter” is Slang for “Nerd”

Bonus Facts:

You might at this point be wondering where various phrases that include the F-bomb came from.  We’ll start with “Flying Fuck”. The first known instance of this appears in Thomas Rowlandson’s early 19th century poem New Feats of Horsemanship. which also helpfully included an illustration of a man and a woman having the historic version of car sex. In the poem, he writes:

Well mounted on a mettled steed
Famed for his strength as well as speed
Corinna and her favorite buck
Are pleas’d to have a flying fuck.

While o’er the downs the courser strains,
With fiery eyes and loosened reins,
Around his neck her arms she flings,
Behind her buttocks move like springs.
While Jack keeps time to every motion,
And pours in love’s delicious potion.

As for “not giving a fuck”, we have the earliest documented instance of this in a 1790 poem by George Tucker, in which it states, “‘God-your books!’ the testy father said, ‘I’d not give a fuck for all you’ve read’…”

The next known instance of this basic sentiment didn’t pop up until just under a century later, in 1879, in a pantomime titled Harlequin Prince Cherrytop and the Good Fairy Fairfuck. The general story here is of a prince by the name of Cherrytop, who ends up a slave to the evil Demon of Masturbation. In to save the day is the Good Fairy Fairfuck and the Princess Shovituppa. In this work, which would be social media gold if properly performed today, appears the following line- “For all your threats I don’t care a fuck. I’ll never leave my princely darling duck.”

As for the sense of screwing someone out of something, we have an 1866 affidavit in which it states a man by the name of “Mr. Baker” “would be fucked out of his money by Mr. Brown.” Interestingly on this one, the notary who recorded this sentence states, “Before putting down the word as used by the witness, I requested him to reflect upon the language he attributed to Mr. Baker, and not to impute to him an outrage upon all that was decent.”

As for someone telling another to “go fuck themselves”, an early documented account of this can be found thanks to one Mary Hamilton in 1836 being charged with obscene language, after calling a group of women on the streets “bloody whores” and telling them to “go and fuck themselves.”

Moving on from there, thanks to Melissa Mohr, author of Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing, we know the first known case of “fucking bitch” was written in an 1857 story written by an abolitionist where he writes of a slave holder beating one of his slaves. Said woman then cries out, “O Lord!” In response, the slave holder tells her, “Hush you fucking bitch, will you take the name of the Lord in vain on the Sabbath day?”

Finally, the crowd favorite, “motherfucker” was first written down in the transcript of an 1889 Texas murder trial, in which it was alleged the person murdered had exclaimed to the person who then allegedly murdered him, “God damned mother-fucking, bastardly son-of-a-bitch.”

Expand for Further References

Я вспоминаю одно время, когда страну захлестнуло море голливудских фильмов и видеосалонов, тогда в лексиконе молодежи появилось вот такое слово — FUCK и его производные. Озвучка американских фильмов была как вы помните «пиратская», это не синхронный перевод и даже не дубляж — это гнусавый голос за кадром (который кстати с ностальгией многие вспоминают). Однако такой перевод зачастую звучавший тише оригинальной звуковой дорожки, давал прекрасную возможность расслышать все что говорят в боевиках. А уж ругались они там зачастую много и часто … правда почти всегда одним словом — FUCK. И мы (я все таки активно участвовал в этом) активно перетягивали его в свой молодежный сленг, отдаленно понимая, что же оно значит все таки на самом деле.

Уж не знаю, присутствует ли это сейчас в ругательствах молодежи. А мы давайте соберем популярные версии происхождения этого ругательства и будем хотя бы в курсе истории того заимствованного, чем мы иногда ругаемся или ругались

Издательство Oxford University Press — одно из наиболее авторитетных и престижных в книжном мире — выпустило в 2009 году  очередное (третье) издание (270 стр.) великолепной книги The F-Word («Слово на букву «ф»), посвященной лишь одному, но — без преувеличения — главному слову английского языка. Можно сказать, что самое респектабельное издательство без ложного стыда благословило выход в свет повествования о сакральном слове англоязычного мира — слове, которое не принято произносить вслух, дабы не согрешить!

Этому слову нет места в процессе вежливой утонченной беседы интеллектуалов. Его не принято употреблять в разговоре с родителями, но приглушенное эхо запретного слова fuck регулярно гремит раскатами в повседневной жизни англоязычного общества, повергая в шок впечатлительных дамочек и ханжей. Но как же можно выжить без этого соленого словца, позволяющего с такой высочайшей степенью точности охарактеризовать оболванивающих нас политиков, выскочек, хамов и негодяев?

Более того, по твердому убеждению некоторых медиков, это магическое словечко (естественно, при осторожном применении) обладает целительными свойствами, уберегая от вспышек гнева, повышения давления и даже расстройства желудка! Слово на букву «ф» спасает от ухода в глубокую депрессию и успокаивает нервы.

Поразительно, но в английском языке не существует более утилитарного слова: ведь fuck можно смело применять практически в любой ситуации, причем в роли глагола, прилагательного, существительного и наречия. Нередко оно становится сочной точкой (а то и восклицательным знаком), завершая предложение и подчеркивая значимость сказанного.

Слово fuck — вовсе не акроним (Акроним — (от греч. akros — «высший, крайний» и onima — «имя») — аббревиатура, образованная из начальных букв слов предложения или словосочетания и произносимая как единое слово (а не побуквенно), например: вуз, загс, НАТО. А вот ЧП, СБУ, ЕС — не акронимы, поскольку произносятся по буквам: чепэ, эсбэу, еэс.), хотя таковым его считают многие знатоки английского языка.

Впервые эта версия прозвучала в феврале 1967 г. в статье, опубликованной в нью-йоркской газете The East Village Other. Автор ее утверждал, что военные медики в британской имперской армии XVIII в. использовали такое сокращение в случаях, когда у солдата выявляли венерическое заболевание — в документах подцепившего заразу ставили штамп F.U.C.K. (Found Under Carnal Knowledge, что означало примерно следующее: «обнаружены последствия плотских сношений»).

Несостоятельной можно считать и выдвинутую в 70-е годы версию о том, что F.U.C.K. расшифровывается как Fornication Under Consent of the King («блуд с согласия монарха»). Ее сторонники утверждали, что во времена, когда в Англии бушевала Черная Смерть (1346—1351), Эдуард III стремился сократить популяцию бедняков, которые по его мнению разносили смертоносную заразу, и издал указа, по которому каждый простолюдин, принявший решение обзавестись потомством, был обязан явится в городской магистрат и испросить позволения заняться любовью со своей избранницей. Писари составляли заявления, которые подавались на рассмотрение герцогам. Обычно срок рассмотрения составлял от одного месяца до нескольких лет. В случае положительного решения, просящему выдавалась королевская грамота на которой красными чернилами красовалась аббревиатура F U C K, которая расшифровывалась, как «Fornication Under Consent of the King» (Блуд, одобренный Его Величеством или Блуд, с согласия короля). Эту грамоту счастливый муж был обязан вывешивать на двери своего дома во время зачатия ребенка.  Увы, свидетельств этому не существует.

На самом деле слово fuck имеет германское происхождение, а его корни можно обнаружить в голландском, немецком и шведском языках, в частности в словах, означавших «обманывать» или «двигаться взад-вперед». Скорее всего английский язык позаимствовал его из фламандского или немецкого примерно в XV ст., но определить конкретный источник невозможно (тут ученые сходятся во мнении). Ясно одно: об англосаксонском происхождении говорить не стоит, поскольку fuck появляется в обращении почти на четыре столетия позднее древнеанглийского периода, применительно к которому используется термин «англосаксонский».

Некоторые специалисты полагают, что ряд слов из древнеанглийского и латыни можно считать прародителями слова fuck, однако отдаленное поверхностное сходство между ним и, к примеру, грубым латинским futuere («совокупляться») не дает оснований говорить об их родстве.

Исследователи потратили немало времени и сил на поиски случаев употребления слова fuck (или его германских сородичей), датируемых более ранним периодом, чем вторая половина XV в., — но безуспешно. Поскольку наиболее ранние случаи чаще всего встречаются в шотландских источниках, некоторые исследователи полагают, что оно заимствовано из древнеисландского языка, оказавшего серьезное влияние на формирование шотландского диалекта. Эта версия тоже признана ошибочной, поскольку с 1475 г. слово fuck использовалось и в других регионах. Скорее всего, в Шотландии оно просто не считалось настолько табуированным, как в других регионах Британии.

В литературном английском слово впервые появляется в XVI веке – в 1509 году была опубликована анонимная сатирическая поэма «Flen, Flyss», где слово зашифровано и, кроме того, маскируется под латынь – надпись gxddbov, совершенно не подходящая по ритму, которую следовало читать fuccant (использованы буквы, которые в древнеанглийском варианте латинского алфавита располагались следом за шифруемыми буквами) – так выглядел бы глагол fuck в форме множественного числа третьего лица настоящего времени, будь он латинским. Сама фраза, написанная на странной смеси латыни и английского, звучала как «Non sunt in celi quia fuccant uuiuys of heli», которая переводится приблизительно как «им не быть в раю, поскольку они совокупляются с женами Эли». «Им» – монахам из монастыря, расположенного в городе Эли, пригороде Кембриджа.

Табу на определенные слова или речевые обороты существовали в Англии издревле. Так, гость, обрушившийся на хозяина дома с «постыдными оскорбительными» словами, по закону был обязан выплатить оскорбленному шиллинг. В разные времена применялись разные запреты. Например, несколько столетий назад богохульство расценивалось как страшнейший грех. А в Америке XIX в. кое-где неприличным считалось даже слово «нога» — его принято было заменять родовым понятием «конечность».

Сегодня табу наложено на любые выражения, которые могут быть восприняты как расовые и этнические оскорбления. В 1994-м в интервью US News & World Report известный педагог — преподавательница вуза — призналась: если она произнесет в аудитории слово fuck, никто из студентов и глазом не моргнет, но она никогда не осмелится даже на самую невинную шутку с этнической или расовой окраской.

Создается впечатление, что сегодня оковы табу, опутывавшие слово на букву «ф», окончательно разрушены. Хотя ряд консервативных изданий упорно отказываются употреблять его в печати, оно попадается на глаза практически повсеместно. Редакции литературных журналов достаточно давно стали снисходительно относиться к появлению его на страницах своих изданий. Теперь fuck можно встретить, читая Newsweek и Time. Это соленое словцо содержится в опубликованном авторитетной газетой New York Times докладе прокурора Кеннета Старра и в нашумевшем заявлении вице-президента (ныне бывшего) Дика Чейни, обнародованном Washington Post. Оно проскальзывает и в транслируемых коммерческими телеканалами передачах, традиционно проходящих тщательную цензуру.

Слово fuck легко обходит телевизионную цензуру, особенно во время живого эфира. Тринадцатого ноября 1965 г. директор Национального театра Великобритании, известный театральный критик Кеннет Тинан стал первым, кто употребил его на ТВ. В ходе вечернего сатирического шоу на канале Би-би-си-3 он отпустил такую фразу: «Я сильно сомневаюсь, что в наши дни существуют разумные люди, для которых слово fuck все еще остается дьявольским, бунтарским или совершенно неприемлемым». Это вызвало в стране скандал: телекомпания Би-би-си была вынуждена принести извинения, а политики попытались оставить без работы не только Тинана, но и директора Би-би-си. Горячие головы предлагали даже засудить первого за нецензурные выражения на публике. Тем не менее он отделался весьма элегантным заявлением: «Я использовал это древнеанглийское слово в совершенно нейтральной манере, чтобы подчеркнуть серьезность сказанного. Точно так же я бы поступил во время беседы в любой компании, состоящей из совершеннолетних людей».

Слово fuck неоднократно звучало с голубых экранов, но в историю вошел самый скандальный случай. Первого декабря 1976 г. ведущий программы «Сегодня» Thames Television[5], беседуя в прямом эфире с членами группы Sex Pistols, поинтересовался, как они распорядились солидным авансом, полученным от студии звукозаписи. На что гитарист Стив Джонс раскованно ответил: «We’re fucking spent it» — «Мы его уже потратили нах…» (правда, степень экспрессивности английского выражения ниже, чем у матерных слов, которые в большинстве контекстов не используются в качестве переводных эквивалентов, однако в данном случае это уместно). После поощрения со стороны ведущего речь гостей студии стала еще забористей.

В 1990 г. в одном из субботних вечерних эфиров телекомпании Эн-би-си запретное слово произнес певец Принс; в 1993-м на церемонии вручения премии Grammy[6] оно же вырвалось из уст Боно — лидера группы U2. Фразы со словом fuck в различных комбинациях доносят до зрителей мощные микрофоны, установленные на спортивных аренах. Например, в 2008 г. над переполненным стадионом прогремел ликующий возглас филадельфийского бейсболиста Чейза Атли, празднующего победу родной команды: «Чемпионы мира, fuck! Чемпионы мира!» Поразительно, но судя по интервью, взятым после этого эпизода у множества зрителей (в том числе у родителей, пришедших на матч с детьми), большинство из них не сочли эту фразу шокирующей.

Первое появление печатного слова fuck в Америке связано с курьезными обстоятельствами. Оно встречается в решении, принятом в 1854 г. верховным судом штата Миссури по делу некоего мужчины, которого обвиняли в совокуплении с кобылой, однако он подал на клеветников в суд — и выиграл дело. Судя по тексту документа, данное слово (и его значения) в те времена было прекрасно известно американцам, хотя и не включалось в словари. Следующим своим явлением в печатном виде слово fuck обязано все той же Фемиде, а точнее — верховному суду штата Индиана, рассматривавшему в 1865 г. дело о клевете.

Сакральное словцо то и дело встречается на страницах «Улисса» Джеймса Джойса, впервые опубликованного в 1922-м и распространявшегося в США подпольно вплоть до 1933 г., когда суд позволил издавать эту книгу на законных основаниях. «Критикуемые слова — образец англосаксонского сквернословия. Они известны всем мужчинам и, осмелюсь предположить, многим женщинам. По моему мнению, люди, жизнь которых… пытался описать Джойс, используют эти слова традиционно и совершенно естественно», — заявил судья Джон Вулси.

В оригинальном варианте написанной в 1951 г. книги Джеймса Джонса «Отныне и вовек», главный герой которой — рядовой Роберт Ли Пруит, слово fuck встречается 258 раз. В вышедшей из печати версии цензорам и редакторам удалось сократить его употребление до 50 раз. И все же многие американцы назвали этот роман шокирующим, хотя диалоги в книге полностью соответствовали стилю общения солдат того времени.

Дэвиду Лоуренсу, автору «Любовника леди Чаттерлей», пришлось потратить массу времени на судебные тяжбы, поскольку, во-первых, произведение, изданное в 1928 г. и немедленно запрещенное, изобиловало нецензурными выражениями, во-вторых, в нем описывалась связь между аристократкой и простолюдином. Американский суд только в 1959 г. разрешил опубликовать книгу. В 1960-м ее право на существование подтвердил и апелляционный суд. И в том же году издательство Penguin выпустило «Любовника…», причем газеты Guardian и Observer в материалах, посвященных выходу в свет этого романа, цитировали его без купюр, печатая слово fuck открытым текстом.

Крупнейшие американские газеты и журналы, в частности Time и Newsweek, не спешили выпускать джинна из бутылки. Первопроходцем в 1984 г. стал Newsweek: слово fuck фигурировало в отрывке из воспоминаний Ли Якокки[7], где передавалась беседа мемуариста с Генри Фордом II. Газета Los Angeles Times впервые допустила fuck на свои страницы (не прибегая к замене отдельных букв многоточием или «звездочками») в 1991 г., сочно прокомментировав им обращение Горбачева к путчистам-неудачникам. В 1992 г. пришел черед Washington Post: репортер этой газеты просто процитировал слова преступника, приговоренного к казни. В сентябре 2000-го соленое словцо просочилось и на страницы респектабельного Time — первой ласточкой стал материал о канадском премьер-министре Пьере Трюдо. А в 2004 г. Washington Post в одном из материалов поведала миру о том, как вице-президент США Дик Чейни прилюдно оскорбил оппонента хлестким Fuck off! («Трахни сам себя!»).

Трудно представить современное англоязычное кино без соленых выражений на грани фола. Многим представляется, что так было всегда. Между тем зрители впервые услышали слово fuck с экрана только в 1970-м благодаря черной комедии MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) — «Военно-полевой госпиталь». Кое-кто датирует первую «экранизацию» сакрального слова 1967-м, поскольку именно тогда в Ирландии был снят фильм по «Улиссу» Джойса, но это неверно: ведь данную киноленту там допустили в широкий прокат лишь в 2000 г.

За годы, прошедшие с момента кинодебюта слова fuck, оно успешно завоевало эту сферу: теперь персонажи боевиков, комедий и мелодрам употребляют его с завидной регулярностью.

Какой же фильм достоин лавров чемпиона? Вопрос непростой, но дотошные эксперты все-таки сумели это определить. Первое место по праву принадлежит документальному фильму Fuck, посвященному этимологии и истории заглавного слова, которое звучит в нем 824 раза за 93 минуты экранного времени (8,86 раза в минуту). Второе место занимает снятая Гэри Олдманом в 1997 г. драма Nil by Mouth («Немой»), где подобных повторов насчитывается 428. «Казино» Мартина Скорсезе (1995 г.) с показателем 398 замыкает тройку лидеров. В числе рекордсменов — и такие кинокартины, как «Лето Сэма» Спайка Ли, «Славные парни» Мартина Скорсезе, «Угроза обществу» братьев Хьюз. Кстати, ленты Квентина Тарантино «Бешеные псы» и «Криминальное чтиво», которые многие из нас считают крайне вульгарными, занимают в этом рейтинге всего лишь 20-е и 21-е места (с показателем соответственно 269 и 265).

Впервые слово fuck появилось в объемистом итало-английском словаре Джона Флорио World of Words, вышедшем в 1598 г. Однако дебютировало оно лишь в качестве эквивалента к итальянскому fottere (вульгарный аналог глагола «совокупляться», которому соответствуют такие эквиваленты, как «отодрать», «трахнуть»).

Факсимиле итало-английского словаря Джона Флорио

А «полноправное» введение этого слова в лексиконы произошло в 1671 г. — с выходом в свет составленного Стивеном Скиннером словаря английской этимологии (на латыни) Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae, где оно удостоилось отдельной словарной статьи. В 1721-м публикуется «Универсальный этимологический словарь английского языка» (Universal Etymological English Dictionary) Натана Бэйли, где также присутствует fuck. Однако после опубликования в 1775-м и 1795 г. «Нового полного словаря английского языка» (New and Complete Dictionary of the English Language) Джона Эша прогресс застопорился. Долгое время сакральное слово англоязычного мира можно было отыскать только в узкоспециализированных изданиях — например, в «Словаре сленга и аналогий» (Dictionary of Slang and Analogues) Джона Фармера, выпущенном в 1891-м и 1893 г. Подобные книги распространялись исключительно частным образом среди подписчиков.

Наступление XX столетия никоим образом не облегчило долю многострадального слова. Авторитетный британский лексикограф Эрик Партридж включил с десяток его вариаций в свой «Словарь сленга и неформального английского языка» (Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English), но вместо буквы u набиралась «звездочка»: f*ck. Несмотря на данную меру предосторожности, публикация этого и последующих изданий словаря неизменно вызывала протесты со стороны полиции, педагогов и библиотекарей. Под давлением общественности в издании 1958 г. выдающемуся лексикографу пришлось добавить еще одну «звездочку» (f**k), чтобы избежать упреков. Даже в 60-е годы желающему ознакомиться со словарем Партриджа требовалось получить особое разрешение. А напечатать слово полностью, без купюр, британцам удалось только в 1967 г.!

Первым современным неспециализированным словарем английского языка, куда составители не побоялись включить крамольное словцо из четырех букв, стал британский Penguin English Dictionary 1967 г. В Америке честь «открытия» слова fuck принадлежит словарю American Heritage Dictionary 1969 года издания. Естественно, в словарных статьях это слово снабжалось пометкой «вульгарное». А в почтенном и авторитетном «Оксфордском словаре английского языка» соответствующая статья была введена только в 1972-м.

Чем же объясняется столь непочтительное отношение лексикографов к чуть ли не самому популярному и утилитарному слову английского языка? Ложной стыдливостью, пуританством, консервативностью, ханжеством или навязчивым стремлением по своему усмотрению определять четкие грани приличия и неприличия?

Как бы то ни было, издательству Oxford University Press удалось хотя бы отчасти исправить эту многовековую несправедливость. The F-Word — не просто словарь одного слова. Это еще и заботливый проводник, не дающий пытливому читателю заблудиться в непростом, но крайне интересном мире слова на букву «ф». Даже краткое ознакомление с этим блистательным трудом (работа над ним длилась более 15 лет) помогает осознать: грань между приличием и неприличием в речи и на письме представляет собой тончайшую, размытую веками, подчас еле различимую линию. А то, что мы порой по умолчанию считаем оскорбительным, нецензурным или неприличным, нередко является неотъемлемой частью истории нашей цивилизации — частью, от которой невозможно отказаться, которую нельзя забыть, запретить или проигнорировать.

Представьте себе следующую картину. Известный интеллектуал прибегает к знакомому всем жесту, выражая таким образом недовольство высказываниями политика-пустобреха. Он демонстрирует средний палец и заявляет: “Вот это – большой демагог!”

Эта история произошла вовсе не во время телевизионного ток-шоу, и не в одном из салонов Лондона или Нью-Йорка. Она имела место в Афинах в четвертом веке до нашей эры: таким образом в изложении историков более поздней эпохи философ Диоген, не стесняясь в выражениях, описал свое отношение к оратору Демосфену.

Получается, что средний палец, выставляемый вперед при остальных пальцах, прижатых к ладони, является символом оскорбления и уничижения уже больше двух тысячелетий.

“Это один из самых древних из известных нам жестов”, — говорит антрополог Дезмонд Моррис.

“Средний палец символизирует пенис, а сжатые пальцы – семенные железы. Это фаллический символ. Он показывает, что вы демонстрируете фаллос, а подобное поведение имеет первобытные корни”, — объясняет эксперт.

Во время воскресной трансляции Супер Боула — самой популярной телепрограммы на американском телевидении – британская певица M.I.A. показала средний палец, когда началось выступление Мадонны. В связи с этим американская Национальная футбольная лига (НФЛ) и телекомпания Эн-би-си принесли извинения телезрителям.

“Неприличный жест во время выступления был совершенно недопустимым”, — заявил официальный представитель НФЛ Брайан Маккарти.

У древних римлян было особое название для этого жеста: “digitus impudicus”, то есть бесстыдный, непристойный или оскорбительный палец.

Герой одной из эпиграмм поэта Марциала, жившего в первом веке нашей эры, хвастается хорошим здоровьем и показывает трем врачам “неприличный” средний палец.

Древнеримский историк Тацит писал, что воины германских племен показывали средний палец наступавшим римским солдатам.

Но еще за много веков до этого греки использовали этот жест как прямое указание на мужские гениталии.

Древнегреческий драматург Аристофан в 419 году до нашей эры написал комедию “Облака”, в которой один из героев сначала жестикулирует своим средним пальцем, а потом — половыми органами.

По мнению антрополога, в США неприличный жест, скорее всего, завезли итальянские эмигранты. Он впервые засвидетельствован в Америке в 1886 году, когда бейсбольный питчер клуба “Бостон Бинитерс” продемонстрировал его на групповой фотографии с игроками конкурирующей команды “Нью-Йорк Джайантс”.

У французов есть собственный “фаллический салют”, отмечает Моррис (этот жест также распространен в России). Он называется “bras d’honneur” (рука чести), и представляет собой согнутую под прямым углом руку, на которую в районе локтя кладется вторая рука.

При этом аналогичный британский жест представляет собой вывернутый наизнанку знак “виктори” (когда демонстрируются указательный и средний пальцы, но руку при этом поворачивают ладонью стороной к себе).

Историки продолжают спорить о происхождении этого жеста, но наиболее распространенная легенда говорит о том, что впервые его применили во время битвы при Азенкуре в 1415 году.

Якобы на поле боя англичане стали демонстративно размахивать средними пальцами перед носом у французских солдат, которые пригрозили отрезать плененным лучникам большой и указательный пальцы, чтобы те не могли стрелять.

Впрочем, оскорбительный смысл среднего пальца уже давно преодолел культурные, лингвистические или национальные границы. Сейчас его можно наблюдать на акциях протеста, футбольных матчах и на рок-концертах по всему миру.

В декабре прошлого года нападающий “Ливерпуля” Суарес попал в объективы фотографов, демонстрируя средний палец болельщикам “Фулхэма” после проигрыша в гостях со счетом 1-0. Английская футбольная федерация вынесла ему выговор за неподобающее поведение и дисквалифицировала на одну игру.

В 2004 году канадского депутата из Калгари обвинили в грубом жесте в адрес коллеги из другой партии, который не давал ему выступать в Палате общин.

Два года спустя поп-певица Бритни Спирс показала палец группе фотографов, которые ее якобы преследовали. Впрочем, некоторые фаны решили, что жест предназначался для них, и звезде пришлось извиниться.

Хотя средний палец исторически и символизировал фаллос, он уже потерял свое первоначальное значение и больше не воспринимается как нечто непристойное, считает Айра Роббинс, профессор права Вашингтонского университета, изучавший роль жеста в истории уголовной юриспруденции.

“Это не проявление похотливого интереса, — уверяет эксперт. – Этот жест укоренился в повседневной жизни – как в нашей стране, так и в других. Он означает очень много других вещей – протест, злобу, волнение. Это уже не просто фаллос”.

Роббинс даже не разделает точку зрения журналиста агентства Ассошиэйтед пресс, который назвал этот жест “откровенным”. “Что же в нем откровенного? – спрашивает эксперт. – Вот танцы могут быть откровенными. Но палец? Просто не понимаю этого”.

[источники]
источники

Константин ВАСИЛЬКЕВИЧ

http://nechtoportal.ru

А я бы вам напомнил еще 16 версий происхождения слова «Окей» и как образовалось слово «БЛОКБАСТЕР»

Оригинал статьи находится на сайте ИнфоГлаз.рф Ссылка на статью, с которой сделана эта копия — http://infoglaz.ru/?p=11757