Monday, February 2, 2009

What the...F***?!

We can always hear cussing or cursing using this word especially English speaking people - movies, chatrooms and notably colloquial conversations. In my experience as a member, moderator or even owner of a certain chatroom, I can never stand a day without seeing chatters using the F word. They use the F word in anything. For an instance, "I love you very much.", they will make it as I love you f***ing much. I am not convincing you to do the same. I have got a question though. Using this word, do you really know what is the meaning of it? Or you just simply using it because of the trend? 

The usual meaning people will give if we ask them about What does F word means, It's "Sex". Well for you to be intellectually equipped with the real meaning of this word. You need to read the next items.

F***. A word or an acronym. There are several explanation how they came up with  F.*.*.*. Whatever it is,  let us dissect it into an explainable lines.

Variant #1
Having consulted the definitive reference work on this subject (yes, there is such a thing: "The F-Word" by Jesse Sheidlower, published by Random House in 1999).
The word f*** did not originate as an acronym. It crept, fully formed, into the English language from Dutch or Low German around the 15th century (it's impossible to say precisely when because so little documentary evidence exists, probably due to the fact that the word was so taboo throughout its early history that people were afraid to write it down). The American Heritage Dictionary says its first known occurrence in English literature was in the satirical poem "Flen, Flyss" (c.1500), where it was not only disguised as a Latin word but encrypted � gxddbov � which has been deciphered as fuccant, pseudo-Latin for "they f***." 

According to Sheidlower, the earliest claims in print of supposed acronymic origins for the F-word appeared during the 1960s. An underground newspaper called the East Village Other published this version in 1967: 


Variant #2
It's not commonly known that the word "f***" originated as a medical diagnostic notation on the documents of soldiers in the British Imperial Army. When a soldier reported sick and was found to have V.D., the abbreviation F.*.*.*. was stamped on his documents. It was short for "Found Under Carnal Knowledge." Two more variants appeared in a letter published in Playboy magazine in 1970: 

Other claims that the word f*** originated in the 15th Century, when a married couple needed permission from the king to procreate. Hence, Fornication Under Consent of the King. I maintain that it's an acronym of a law term used in the 1500s that referred to rape as Forced Unnatural Carnal Knowledge." Undoubtedly the most famous use of this etymological travesty was as the title of the 1991 Van Halen album, "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge." 

Variant #3
Aside from the Latin "fuccant" as a basis of origin, the most logical variant that I have heard is the following. That even in the relatively crude times of the middle ages, the catholic church along with local governments, following religious doctrine, kept sins of the flesh and crime down with fairly stern punishments (i.e. beatings, hanging, burning, dismemberment). 

This practice was only challenged after the first coinciding of the bubonic plague in England in the 1340's. After the conservatively estimated death tole of roughly 30 to 60 percent of the English population, the previously very militaristic King Edward III was faced with a shortage of manpower and with it, food supplies, infrastructure, and (probably most important to the king) public sentiment. Understandingly the list of offenses requiring death were shortened as adding insult to injury was not in the king's favor. 

One method proposed to him for alleviating the population scarcity was "fornication under consent of the king" whereby, for a time, the crime of unlawful fornication was stricken from punishment if the person in question was unmarried. It was the hope that the royal decree (basically a scare tactic) would encourage more people to wed and in turn have children. Whether it worked or not is history's guess but as a cynical person I like this theory best. 

One of the the most gory and tragic times in England history is time of HENRY III. Because of plague, homicide, battles, wars half of England population died and English army had insufficient soldiers. Te king was worried about the future of Great Britain. That at the end, he has a research made and found out that there were lots of rascal men in jails and dungeons and so much prostitutes as well. He decided to allow them to make love for increasing the population of England .

Mating was organized in jails between prostitutes and rascal men to provide population explosion. Since it was done by the permission of king it was known as " Fornication Under the Control of King" or abbreviated(F.U.C.K). In 15 years population increased twofold. 

Well those were the 3 variants where the F word originated.
  • Thanks to WikiAnswer for the Help. :)

2 comments:
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  1. Hi!
    Thank you for your detail article on 'what the F***' words. Now I know.
    See you around.

    ReplyDelete
  2. hello pearl!nice post again..
    and, i'll have to comment again hehe..
    of course i will, this topic gave me
    a 95% in speech class..(yeah i did it
    in front of the whole class)
    This may answer why you always hear it
    a lot (or read it a lot) in chatboxes.
    I derived my speech from Adam Sandler's
    "Uses of the word F*ck" and modified it
    a bit.. My instructor was hesitant at
    first to accept my topic, but when i
    submitted written copy, she cant help but
    accept it because it was funny yet make
    sense... (?) so here it is:

    "USES of the Word F*ck"

    Perhaps one of the most interesting words
    in the English language today is the word "f*ck"..
    Out of all the English words that starts with
    the letter F, F*ck is only word that is referred to as the "F word".
    It's the one magical word that just by its
    sound can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love.
    F*ck, as most words in the english language, is
    derived from German, the word "frichen" which
    means "to strike".
    In English, f*ck falls into many grammatical
    categories:
    As a Transitive verb for instance:
    "John f*cked Shirley"
    As an intransitive verb, "Shirley f*cks"

    It's meaning is not always sexual, it could be
    used as an adjective, such as "John is doing all
    the f*cking work!"
    As part of an adverb, "Shirley talks too f*cking
    much"
    As an adverb enhancing an adjective, "Shirley is
    f*cking beautiful"
    As an object of an adverb,"Shirley is f*cking
    beautifully"
    As a noun, "I don't give a f*ck"
    As part of a word, "Abso-f*cking-lutely" or
    "In-f*cking-credible"
    And as almost every word in a sentence,
    "F*ck the f*cking f*ckers"

    As you may realize, there are few words with the
    versatility that of "f*ck". As in these examples
    describing situation such as:
    Fraud - "I got f*cked to the used car lot"
    Dismay - "Ahh, f*ck it!"
    Trouble - "I guess I'm really f*cked now"
    Aggression - "Don't f*ck with me, buddy!"
    Difficulty - "I don't understand this f*cking
    question"
    Inquiry - "Who the f*ck was that?"
    Dissatisfaction - "I don't like what the f*ck
    is going on here"
    Incompetence - "He's a f*ck-off"
    Dismissal - "Why don't you go outside and play
    hide-and-go-fuck-yourself?" (haha!)

    I'm sure you can think of many more examples.
    With all these multipurpose applications, how
    could anyone be offended when you use this word?
    We say, use this flexible more often in your
    daily speech. It will identify the quality of
    your character immediately. (hehe)

    So say it loudly, and proudly, "F*CK YOU!"

    ReplyDelete

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