What the Fuck?

What the fuck… don’t fuck with me… fuckin A… flying fuckfuck off… fuck you… fuck….

A google search for historical origins of fuck yields Madfish Willie's Cyber Saloon: Fuck You! as #5 result. Only #5?!? Here's a recap of some of the top results and we'll all know where the fuck fuck came from.

Here's the fourth fucking day of fuck:

fuck

Word Origins:
"Fuck" does NOT stand for "for unlawful carnal knowledge" or "fornication under consent of the king". It is not an acronym for anything at all.

It is a very old word, recorded in English since the 15th century (few acronyms predate the 20th century), with cognates in other Germanic languages. The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (Random House, 1994, ISBN 0-394-54427-7) cites Middle Dutch _fokken_ = "to thrust, copulate with"; Norwegian dialect _fukka_ = "to copulate"; and Swedish dialect _focka_ = "to strike, push, copulate" and _fock_ = "penis".

Although German _ficken_ may enter the picture somehow, it is problematic in having e-grade, or umlaut, where all the others have o-grade or zero-grade of the vowel.

AHD1, following Pokorny, derived "feud", "fey", "fickle", "foe", and "fuck" from an Indo-European root _*peig2_ = "hostile"; but AHD2 and AHD3 have dropped this connection for "fuck" and give no pre-Germanic etymon for it. Eric Partridge, in the 7th edition of _Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English_ (Macmillan, 1970), said that "fuck" "almost certainly" comes from the Indo-European root _*peuk-_ = "to prick" (which is the source of the English words "compunction", "expunge", "impugn", "poignant", "point", "pounce", "pugilist", "punctuate", "puncture", "pungent", and "pygmy"). Robert Claiborne, in _The Roots of English: A Reader's Handbook of Word Origin_ (Times, 1989) agrees that this is "probably" the etymon. Problems with such theories include a distribution that suggests a North-Sea Germanic areal form rather than an inherited one; the murkiness of the phonetic relations; and the fact that no alleged cognate outside Germanic has sexual connotations.

Source: [Mark Israel, 'Word Origins: "fuck"', The alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 3608), (29 Sept 1997)]


» by Madfish Willie on January 30 :: Permalink :: Comments (4) :: Funny Stuff
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beauty and love and art and ooh, all sorts of nice things!
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Tracked: January 30, 2004 07:18 PM
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things ~Or~ A Bloggiverse Snap Jar
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Tracked: January 30, 2004 09:47 PM
F.u.c.k.
Excerpt: Are you one of the millions who think they know the origins of the word fuck but are wrong? Read. Here was the comment I left: I remember them actually teaching us that Fornication Upon Consent of the King bullshit...
Weblog: Tao of Dowingba
Tracked: February 2, 2004 11:33 AM
A hypothetical conversation
Excerpt: Someone: Even though there's nothing to support this claim, it makes me feel superior when I tell you that when you swear it shows you have a lack of vocabulary. Me: That's interesting. I'm no math genius, but wouldn't the...
Weblog: Tao of Dowingba
Tracked: February 9, 2004 03:22 AM
Bullshitters

Hey Willie, ya little fuck - yuou're now the number fucking one google fucking search for the historical origins of fuck, you fucker you. Now quityerbitchin, shut the fuck up, and pour some fucking drinks ya fuck-face!

Posted by: Mike the Marine on January 30, 2004 06:17 PM

Now that I've read all that crap, saying "Fuck you, Bartender" makes me feel all edumacated & shit.

Posted by: Harvey on January 31, 2004 09:08 AM

I remember them actually teaching us that Fornication Upon Consent of the King bullshit in school, and later learning that it, along with half the other crap I learned in school, was completely false. Thanks for your tireless efforts in pushing this up to the top on Google. The world needs to know!

Posted by: dowingba on February 2, 2004 11:29 AM

Well. I'll be fucked.

Posted by: Raveled on February 29, 2004 05:26 PM