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RE: fuck

On Fri, 25 Jan 2002, David Armstrong wrote:
> a buncha' years ago...i heard that "fuck" was an acronym for:
> Fornication Under Command of the King.
> dating back to the middle ages or something...

Definitely *not*.

> anybody know the true origin of this colourful word?

   _Fuck_ is a word of Germanic origin. It is related to words in several
   other Germanic languages, such as Dutch, German, and Swedish, that have
   sexual meanings as well as meanings like 'to strike' or 'to thrust'.
   . . . The earliest suggestion of an acronymic etymology for _fuck_
   appears to be in the 1960s. Despite the importance of the F-word,
   scholars have yet to discover an example of _fuck_ (or any of its
   Germanic relatives) before the fifteenth century.

   -- Jesse Sheidlower, _The F Word_, Random House, 1995, pages xxiv-xxv.

Oh, and just for fun:

   Though Shakespeare never actually uses _fuck_ itself, there are several
   examples in the plays of probable puns or references to the word. A
   Latin grammar lesson in _The Marry Wives of Windsor_ (IV.i) gives us
   the _focative case_ (punning on the _vocative case_, used for direct
   address), followed up immediately with a raft of lewd wordplay
   including sexual puns on Latin words and references to various English
   words for the sexual organs. . . .

   -- Jesse Sheidlower, _The F Word_, Random House, 1995, page xxvi.

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
 "I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
      Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom

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