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| FUCK YOU ASSHOLE. | |||
| :''For the ] band '''Fuck''', see ].'' | |||
| :''For the ] film '''Fuck''', see ].'' | |||
| While the word '''fuck''', used literally, refers to ], it is commonly considered extremely vulgar in this usage. It is more commonly considered to be one of the most impolite and flexible curse words in the English language. It can be used as a ], ], ], ], or ]. | |||
| It is unclear whether the word has always been considered ] and, if not, when it was initially considered to be ]. Some evidence indicates that in some English-speaking locales it was considered acceptable as late as the ] meaning "to strike" or "to penetrate" . Other evidence indicates that it may have become ] as early as the ] in ]. Other reputable sources such as the '']'' contend the true ] is still uncertain but appears to point to an Anglo-Saxon origin that in later times spread to the British colonies and worldwide. | |||
| The two seemingly contradictory hypotheses may reflect cultural and/or regional English dialects. See ] for further discussion. | |||
| == Etymology == | |||
| The etymology of ''fuck'' has given rise to a great deal of speculation, which should be regarded skeptically. The authoritative ''] (OED)'' is cautious in providing an etymology for this word. In the quotation below, the dictionary's usual abbreviations are spelled out for clarity: | |||
| :Early modern English ''fuck'', ''fuk'', answering to a ] type *''fuken'' (weak verb) not found; ulterior etymology unknown. Synonymous ] ''ficken'' can be shown to be related as well as ] ''fokken'', meaning ''to breed'' or ''to strike''. | |||
| The first known occurrence, in code because of its unacceptability, is in a poem composed in a mixture of ] and English sometime before ]. The poem, which satirizes the ] ]s of ], takes its title, "]," from the first words of its opening line, "Flen, flyys, and freris"; that is, "Fleas, flies, and friars". The line that contains ''fuck'' reads "Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk." The Latin words "Non sunt in coeli, quia," mean "They are not in heaven, since when though." The code "gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk" is easily broken by simply substituting the preceding letter in the alphabet, keeping in mind differences in the alphabet and in spelling between then and now: '']'' was then used for both ''i'' and '']''; '']'' was used for both '']'' and ''v''; and two ''v''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s were used for ''w''. This yields "fvccant (a fake Latin form) vvivys of heli." The whole thus reads in translation: "They | |||
| are not in heaven since they fuck wives of ] (a town near Cambridge)." From . | |||
| As the ''OED'' notes, some have attempted to draw a connection to the ] word ''ficken'' (to fuck, in dialects: to rub, to scratch, and historically to strike). | |||
| Other possible connections are to Latin ''futuere'' (hence the ] ''foutre'', the ] ''fottere'', the ] ''fute'', the vulgar peninsular ] ''follar'' and ''joder'', and the ] ''foder''). However, there is considerable doubt and no clear lineage for these derivations. These roots, even if ], are not the original Indo-European word for ''to fuck''; that root is likely *''h<sup>3</sup>yebh-'', ("''h<sup>3</sup>''" is the H3 ]) which is attested in ] (''yabhati'') and the ] (] ''yebat`'', ] ''jebać''), among others: compare Greek "oiphô" (verb), and Greek "zephyros" (noun, ref. a Greek belief that the west wind caused pregnancy). However, ] (who agrees that these words are related) argues that they derive from the Indo-European | |||
| *''bhu-'' or *''bhug-'', believed to be the root of "to be", "to grow", and "to build". | |||
| Spanish ''follar'' has a different root; according to Spanish etymologists, the Spanish verb "follar" (attested in the ]) derives from "fuelle" (bellows) from Latin "folle(m)" < Indo-European "bhel-"; ancient Spanish verb folgar (attested in the ]) derived from Latin "follicare", ultimately from follem/follis too. | |||
| A possible etymology is suggested by the fact that the Common Germanic ''fuk-'', by an application of ], would have as its most likely ] ancestor *''pug-'', which appears in Latin and ] words meaning "fight" and "fist". In early Common 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". Then, ''fuck'' has cognates in other Germanic languages, such as ] ''fokken'' (to thrust, copulate, or to breed), dialectical Norwegian ''fukka'' (to copulate), and dialectical ] ''focka'' (to strike, copulate) and ''fock'' (penis). A very similar set of Latin words that have not yet been related to these are those for hearth or fire, "focus/focum" (with a short o), fiery, "focilis", Latin and Italian for hearthly/hearthling, "focia/focacia", and fire, "focca", and the Italian for bonfire, | |||
| "focere". But these words came from ], centuries after Middle Dutch. | |||
| There is perhaps even an original ] derivation; ''futuere'' being related to ''battuere'' (to strike, to copulate); which may be related to ] ''bot'' and Manx ''bwoid'' (penis). The argument is that ''battuere'' and ''futuere'' (like the Irish and Manx words) comes from the Celtic ''*bactuere'' (to pierce), from the root ''buc-'' (a point). An even earlier root may be the ] ''petcha'' (to copulate), which has a highly suggestive ]. Or perhaps Latin "futuere" came from the root "fu", Common Indo-European "bhu", meaning "be, become" and originally referred to procreation. | |||
| ===False etymologies === | |||
| There are several ] ] postulating an ]ic origin for the word. In the most popular version, it is said that the word "fuck" came from Irish law. If a couple committing ] were "Found Under Carnal Knowledge" they would be penalized, with "FUCK" written on the ] above them to denote the crime. Alternative explanations for "fuck" as an acronym for adultery pin it as "Fornication Under Cardinal/Carnal Knowledge", or "Fornication under the Consent of the King". Another story is that it was written in the log book as "FUCK" when people in the military or navy who had homosexual intercourse were being punished. Variants of this include "]", "Felonious Use of Carnal Knowledge", "Full Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", and "Forced Unlawful Carnal Knowledge", a label supposedly applied to the crime of ]. In another story, a sign reading "Fornication Under Consent of the King" was supposedly placed on signs above houses in medieval England during | |||
| times of population control and was special permission given to knights, by their king, when a knight wished to have sex with a woman. | |||
| None of these acronyms were ever heard before the ], according to the authoritative ] work, ''The F-Word'', and so are ]s. In any event, the word "fuck" has been in use for too long for some of these supposed origins to be possible. It should also be noted that acronyms themselves were rare prior to the 20th century. | |||
| ==Usage history== | |||
| {{main|History of the word "fuck"}} | |||
| ===Early usage=== | |||
| Its first known use as a verb meaning to have ] is in "]" (see above) some time before ]. | |||
| ] ] poem "Brash of Wowing" includes the lines: "Yit be his feiris he wald haif fukkit:/ Ye brek my hairt, my bony ane." | |||
| Some time around ], before the term acquired its current meaning, "windfucker" was an acceptable name for the bird now known as the ]. | |||
| While ] never used the term explicitly, he hinted at it in comic scenes in several plays. '']'' (IV.i) contains ''focative case'' (see ]). In '']'' (IV.iv), Pistol threatens to ''firk'' (strike) a soldier, a euphemism for ''fuck''. | |||
| In the small villages in almost all English-speaking countries this word was widely used with current primary meaning (ex. "Fuck off", "Fucking ...", etc). | |||
| ===Rise of modern usage=== | |||
| ''Fuck'' did not appear in any widely-consulted dictionary of the English language from ] to ]. Its first appearance in the '']'' (along with the word '']'') was in ]. | |||
| In 1928, ] gained notoriety for his novel, "Lady Chatterley's Lover," for its frequent use of the words "fuck", "fucked", and "fucking". | |||
| The liberal usage of the word (and other vulgarisms) by certain artists (such as ], ], and ]) has led to the banning of their works and criminal charges of ]. | |||
| After ]'s publishers convinced him to ] ''fuck'' as ''fug'' in his work '']''], ] supposedly greeted him with the ], "So you're the young man who can't spell ''fuck''." (In fact, according to Mailer, the quip was devised by Bankhead's ]. He and Bankhead never met until ] and did not discuss the word then.) The rock group ] named themselves after the Mailer ]. | |||
| The first ] to include ''fuck'' in its title was probably ]'s "The Big Space Fuck", originally published in 1972. Exhibiting Vonnegut's characteristic blend of pessimism and humor, this story tells of a polluted and overpopulated Earth. On midnight, ] ], the United States fires the ''Arthur C. Clarke,'' a missile whose warhead contains eight hundred pounds of freeze-dried ], aiming at the ]. This story, which contains many allusions to earlier Vonnegut works (such as character names and the "]"), was written as a personal favor to ]. First published in Ellison's anthology ''Again, Dangerous Visions,'' it is reprinted in ''].'' | |||
| ] once commented that the word ''fuck'' ought to be considered more appropriate, because of its implications of love and reproduction, than the violence exhibited in many movies. He humorously suggested replacing the word "kill" with the word "fuck" in his comedy routine, such as in an old movie western: "Okay, Sheriff, we're gonna fuck you, now. But we're gonna fuck you slow..." Or, perhaps at a baseball game: "Fuck the Ump, fuck the Ump, fuck the Ump!" | |||
| During a ] debate in the House of Commons, ] Prime Minister ] mouthed the words "fuck off" at Conservative MP John Lundrigan, while Lundrigan made some comments about unemployment. Trudeau did this under his breath, perhaps altogether silently, but it was seen, and an issue made of it. When questioned by a television reporter about it, afterward, Mr. Trudeau used "]" to refer to what he had mouthed, introducing that term into the Canadian lexicon, as a euphemism for "fuck". (A common but false belief notwithstanding, Trudeau did not claim that he had actually mouthed "fuddle-duddle", but only used "fuddle-duddle" in answering the questions about what he had mouthed, rather than say "fuck" in a television interview.) | |||
| In a widely-publicized ] ] incident, ] ] told ] ] to either "fuck off" or "go fuck yourself" during an exchange on the floor of the Senate. '']'', in a show of journalistic prudence, reported that the Vice President "urged Mr. Leahy to perform an anatomical sexual impossibility." The Vice President's words later came back to haunt him in the wake of Hurricane Katrina while touring the disaster area in ] when local resident ], M.D. said "Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney" live on international television. | |||
| ===Freedom of expression=== | |||
| In 1971, the ] decided that the mere public display of ''fuck'' is protected under the ] and ] 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 ].) The conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeals and overturned by the Supreme Court. '']'', ''403 U.S. 15'' (1971). | |||
| Pornographer ], representing himself before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 in a ] case, shouted, "Fuck this court!" during the proceedings and called the justices "nothing but eight assholes and a token ]." Chief Justice ] had him arrested for ] but the charge was later dismissed. | |||
| ===Popular usage=== | |||
| In the ], the ] fines stations for the broadcast of "indecent language", but in 2003 the agency's enforcement bureau ruled that the airing of the statement "This is really, really fucking brilliant!" by ] member ] after receiving a ] was neither obscene nor indecent. As U.S. broadcast indecency regulation only extends to depictions or descriptions of sexual or excretory functions, Bono's use of the word as a mere ] was not covered. In early 2004, the full Commission reversed the bureau ruling, in an order that stated that "the F-word is one of the most vulgar, graphic and explicit descriptions of sexual activity in the English language"; a fine, however, has yet to result. Notwithstanding widespread usage and linguistic analysis to the contrary, the reversal was premised on the conclusion that the word ''fuck'' has ''always'' referred to sexual activity, a claim that the FCC neither explained nor supported with evidence. Even on cable television, which is not regulated by the FCC, few channels will broadcast the word "fuck" because of a fear of backlash from advertisers. | |||
| In German, although the word "to fuck" literally translates as "ficken", and the exclamation of "fuck" translates usually as "Scheiße" (literally '']'') or "Mist" (literally '']''), the exclamation "fuck" itself has been known to have been "borrowed" into the German language as a swear word and is in semi-frequent use. The same is true for the Dutch language, where the direct translation of "to fuck" would be "neuken". | |||
| Its use in both languages, however, is considered less offensive than the same word in English. | |||
| ''Fuck you'' is a very strong and profane phrase in the ] language. It's an insult for someone to say it to someone. The phrase is considered profanity, because it contains the word ]. Fuck you is an expression used to show discontent with the other party. Fuck you can also mean "Go away!" | |||
| ==Further reference== | |||
| *Hargrave, Andrea Millwood (]). London: Advertising Standards Authority, British Broadcasting Corporation, Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission. | |||
| *], ''The F Word'' (]) ISBN 0375706348. Presents hundreds of uses of ''fuck'' and related words. | |||
| *Michael Swan, ''Practical English Usage'', OUP, ], ISBN 019431197X | |||
| *Phillip J. Cunningham, ''Zakennayo!: The Real Japanese You Were Never Taught in School'', Plume (1995) ISBN 0452275067 | |||
| *], ''Eros Denied: Sex in Western Society''. Grove Press/Zebra Books, New York ]. | |||
| ==See also== | |||
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| ==External links== | |||
| {{wiktionarypar|fuck}} | |||
| * All relevant cases are cited. | |||
| *, see "Word History" for an enciphered(!) usage of the word in the ribald sixteenth-century poem, ''Flen flyys.'' | |||
| * discusses how newspapers decide whether or not to print "fuck." | |||
| * Some Etymology Research | |||
| * (sound file), a famous piece of internet humour. The origin is hard to trace as it is often mistakenly attributed to ]. | |||
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Revision as of 18:08, 28 February 2006
FUCK YOU ASSHOLE.