Re: jesus/christians swearing

["Peter T. Chattaway" <petert at interchange_ubc.ca>]

On Sat, 19 Apr 2003, Aaron Edwards wrote:
> The word f--- is really interesting. Originally, it was used as we might
> say frick nowdays. It was actually a shorter version of the latin word
> "fuccant" (this is according to the exhaustive Oxford dictionary, in
> case you want to dispute me).

Hmmm, Jesse Sheidlower's _The F Word_ says the earliest appearance of
"fricking" goes back only as far as 1936, and "freaking" as far as 1928.  
"Fricking" was probably derived from "frigging", though, and "frig"
(meaning to masturbate *or* to copulate) goes all the way back to 1598.

And apparently that *other* word goes back to c. 1500, or possibly as
early as the 1450s; it is the English form of a widespread Germanic word
(compare "fokken" in Middle Dutch, "fukka" in dialectical Norwegian,
"focka" in dialectical Swedish, and probably "ficken" in German).

   The date of the initial citation may be as early as 1450-75; its
   original form has the English words (from _fuccant_ [the _-ant_ is a
   pseudo-Latin ending] to _heli_ [i.e., Ely, a town in Cambridgeshire])
   in cipher, suggeting that the word was already taboo. It translates as
   "They [the monks] are not in heaven / because they fuck the wives of
   Ely." For asterisks in 1848 and 1854 quotations, see note at FUCKING,
   _adjective_.

   a1500 in _Verbatim_ (May 1977) 1: Non sunt in celi / quia fuccant
   uuiuys of heli. ca1500 in W. Dunbar _Poems_ 40: He clappit fast, he
   kist, he chukkit...Yit be his feiris he wald haif fukkit. 1528 in
   _Notes & Queries_ ccxxviii (N.S.) (Mar. 1993) 29: O d fuckin Abbot.
   1535-36 in D. Lindsay _Works_ I 103: Ay fukkand lyke ane furious
   Fornicatour. ca1550 in D. Lindsay _Satyre_ 88: Bischops ar blist
   howbeit that thay be waryit / For thay may fuck thair fill and be
   unmaryit. a1568 in Farmer & Henley _Slang & Its Analogues_ III 80:
   Allace! said sche, my awin sweit thing, / Your courtly fukking garis me
   fling. . . .

Etc., etc., etc.

> Shakespeare liked to dance around this word, but I digress.

Yes, like when whatsherface in _Much Ado About Nothing_ says a man with a
"good leg" (i.e. penis) and a "good foot" (i.e. fuck, since English "foot"
sounds like French "foutre") could have any woman in the world.  Or see
also the scene in _Henry V_ when the French princess says she could never
say words like "foot" or "gown" because they sound too indecent ("foot",
I've already said what it sounds like; and "gown" ... well, let's just say
it sounds like the French word for what Hamlet called "country matters",
emphasis on the first syllable) (such a naughty, naughty bard).

> Anyway, almost from it's inception, the f word has been a "bad" word.

Seems so!

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
Nothing tells memories from ordinary moments; only afterwards do they
   claim remembrance, on account of their scars. -- Chris Marker, La Jetee

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